


A Better World

by 1Syphira



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fake Marriage, Fluff and Smut, Happy Ending, Hot Alien Sex, Hot Chocolate, Hot Sex, Hotel Sex, Intensely Requited Love, Intensely Romantic Smut, Las Vegas Wedding, Lovable Idiots?, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn(ish), Yeah this shit's about to get dirty, so much thirst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:07:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 68,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26992630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1Syphira/pseuds/1Syphira
Summary: AU - Kara is Lena's executive assistant and loves her new job. But on a business trip to Las Vegas, after deciding to blow off some steam with a few drinks, they have one too many and fall asleep blackout drunk. They wake up the next morning in bed together. Married.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 763
Kudos: 1905





	1. The Interview

**Author's Note:**

> Well here we are. It's yet another fake marriage AU that no one asked for but I'm writing anyway because I can't help my damn self lol. This isn't a crackfic, but it's definitely on the lighter/fluffy side of things. Hope you all enjoy! <3

Kara Danvers sat in the receptionist area of L-Corp, nervously tapping her foot as she waited for her interview. She’d arrived twenty minutes early because that’s what one did to look good, but she was mildly regretting it now because she was bored. She didn’t dare play on her phone because she was sure at a place like this that would be frowned heavily upon, and she saw several security cameras. She was determined for everything to be perfect, to get this job. She _needed_ this job. Well, need was relative. The D.E.O. paid her a decent stipend to work with them as “Supergirl,” (a name the presumptuous owner of CatCo Magazine had coined which stuck, to Kara’s mild annoyance), and it was enough to pay rent on a decent sized apartment and bills while helping people—a job she’d been sent to Earth to fulfill, her mother’s dying wish. But all Kara was, or felt she was, was “Supergirl,” the caped crusader of National City. She’d lost herself so far behind that family crest on her chest she didn’t even feel like Kara Zor-El anymore; she was just the Girl of Steel, a shell of a person, a lifesaving robot.

It wasn’t until she had a nasty run-in with red kryptonite that she realized something had to change. It wasn’t until she chewed Alex and J’onn’s heads off that she understood she was at a breaking point, and that if something didn’t change, she was going to genuinely snap without the use of red kryptonite. She couldn’t be Supergirl all the time. She needed more, she needed connection, she needed a reason to _care_ for this world outside of the promise to her mother which had been driving all of her actions since arriving on Earth.

And so she’d applied for some jobs, something to give herself outside of the family crest on her chest. The interview, for which she was currently waiting, also happened to be the executive assistant position to Lena Luthor, heir of the Luthor fortune and CEO of L-Corp. If Kara was being completely honest with herself, the only reason she applied was to spy on the Luthor who up until a few months ago had lived in relative anonymity. So even in this the crest on her chest was dictating her actions. She exhaled a heavy sigh and glanced at the clock on the wall. A moment later her keen ears heard someone approach and the door to the receptionist area swung open.

“Kara Danvers?” the woman who had led her to this area earlier named Jess said.

Kara rose quickly to her feet and straightened her skirt. “Yes?”

“Miss Luthor will see you now,” Jess said, gesturing for Kara to follow.

She did so, easily stepping into stride next to the shorter woman. They walked down the hall and stopped in front of a door with a name plate that read “Lena Luthor.” Jess opened the door and Kara strode in, exuding all her Kryptonian confidence she’d quickly learned was a great way to get what she wanted with humans. Humans, apparently, were remarkably susceptible to Kryptonian charm, or so she’d observed. She was accustomed to humans behaving a bit “star struck” around her, comfortably used to awed stares and stammering when they met her, even without the red cape upon her shoulders.

It was therefore perfectly understandable that when it happened to her for the first time in her life, she was not at all prepared.

She made it to Miss Luthor’s desk. She held out her hand with her signature warm smile. It wasn’t until Kara shook her hand and made eye contact with the most beautiful green eyes ever to be created that she froze. She froze so hard she accidentally leapt into super speed as a defense mechanism. Just as she opened her mouth to greet Lena Luthor she was floored, no _knocked_ into the next dimension.

She could have happily written sonnets about those icy jade eyes, dark straight hair cascading around her shoulders, and oh _Rao_ those beautiful legs which had a black pencil skirt hugging those thighs. . . And at that point Kara realized super speed hadn’t saved her from the impossibly smooth hand in hers, those long slender fingers grasping her hand in a hand shake that was firm and assertive, but with a soft edge in the angle she held her hand, like a woman who had acclimated to modern life of handshakes but was actually expecting Kara to kiss her hand. And the thing was, Kara would have happily kissed that hand if Lena Luthor so demanded it.

Kara thanked Rao for super speed as she mentally collected her shattered self up off the metaphorical floor. She exhaled and eased back out of super speed.

“Miss Luthor, it’s good to meet you,” Kara said, pushing her glasses up after escaping that beautiful and distracting hand.

“Miss Danvers,” Lena replied in a voice of velvet and silver. “Have a seat.”

Kara did as she was instructed, sitting with perfect posture on the edge of the chair, well aware the styled bun she wore displayed her neck in a way that generally had humans submitting to her proud Kryptonian gaze.

Lena sat down and crossed her legs, her posture significantly more relaxed than Kara’s, but then, she had nothing to prove to her interviewee.

“You have an impressive resumé, Miss Danvers,” Lena said, glancing over it. “You went to Columbia at a young age, I see, had a double major in art and language with a minor in electrical engineering. So why such different fields?”

Fortunately, Kara had been prepared and well-groomed for such questions. She’d trained well with her sister Alex and the D.E.O. to blend in when she needed to, though her IQ was off the charts, so it could be difficult to not come across as a know-it-all.

“Language is interesting and there are so many. Learning a new language is like learning a whole new way of viewing the world, but also a whole new form of self-expression. Electrical engineering was just for fun.”

Lena let out a small, surprised laugh. “You took electrical engineering for fun? There’s a sentence you don’t hear every day. What do you find ‘fun’ about it, pray tell?”

“I think art and science is one and the same,” Kara said, feeling her excitement grow. This was her favorite topic of conversation after all. “I think if you look at all the great inventors of history, they were artists with wild and beautiful imaginations. I don’t know why the sciences have moved so far from the arts. Without the imagination to dream up wireless power or submarines or space ships or cars, none of those things would exist. Science without art is stagnant and without purpose, without direction. Aaand I’m rambling, I’m so sorry!” Kara said, her poise slipping for a moment as she pushed up her glasses again in embarrassment.

Lena templed her fingertips, her icy green eyes giving her a piercing look, though Kara could see just a hint of excitement simmering beneath the surface. “I am inclined to agree with you. No one seems interested in creating anything bold or new, all we make right now are minuscule improvements to existing technology. I want to break that mold. So what about L-Corp made you apply here for this job? With all that education of yours, why apply to be an executive assistant and not open an art studio or work for a museum?”

And there it was—the big question. Kara had already prepared this answer. It was always the hardest question to answer because the truth would involve saying she wasn’t interested in working here—jobs were a means to an end; did anyone actually want to work anywhere? She wanted to make art and science somewhere, but not as a job. She wondered if other people struggled with this question too. Still, as she gazed into those wide green eyes, she had the sudden thought that working here might not be so bad if it meant working under Lena. _With_ Lena. _‘Oh Rao, Kara, what is wrong with you?!’_ She also realized when researching the elusive heiress she really ought to have looked up pictures of her so she could have been more prepared for this woman’s stunning beauty. In addition, Kara realized she _really_ did need to get out more.

“To be honest, I wanted to work with you,” Kara said before she could stop herself. Whoops. So much for the scripted answer. Well she was committed now, darn it. “I’ve seen the specs on some of your inventions and you are truly visionary, an artist. And to be someone who could work with you, learn from you? Anyone should be so lucky, Miss Luthor.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere with me, Miss Danvers. But I must admit, it is exciting to hear you’re a fellow inventor. So why should I choose you to be my right hand, what sets you apart from all the other candidates?” Lena asked.

“I wasn’t flattering you, I was being honest,” Kara replied, hoping Lena could see the authenticity of the statement. “And it isn’t my place to say you ‘should’ or ‘shouldn’t’ do anything. I think you will find I’m an incredibly strong and reliable right hand. I won’t stumble or waiver at the first sign of trouble, I’ll let you know if you ever cross a line, and I will be your collaborator, your accomplice, and your loyal friend. I think it takes all of these things to be an excellent executive assistant, but I will leave such judgments up to you.”

Lena took in all of Kara with her incredible jade eyes with such a studying look it nearly made the Kryptonian squirm. “Good answer.”

* * *

Kara sat on her couch staring at her strategically placed ships on her Battleship board with unseeing eyes. Her mind was otherwise occupied with her brief conversation over the phone she’d had with Lena in which the CEO had offered Kara the job as her assistant.

“You gonna go or what?” Alex demanded. “You’ve been staring at your board for like five minutes.”

“I don’t think we should spy on Lena Luthor,” Kara blurted out before she could second guess the decision.

Alex blinked. “What?”

“I don’t think we should. I don’t think we should presume someone is guilty until proven innocent. There is a saying on Krypton, a child’s fable warning people that if you call someone a monster long enough, they might become just that. I don’t think it’s fair to judge her by the actions of her brother.”

“Life isn’t fair and this isn’t a child’s fable,” Alex shot back.

“A-4,” Kara said. “And parables are legitimate forms of arguments. In fact I know you’ve used ‘ _The Boy Who Cried Wolf_ ’ on me like multiple times.”

“Miss,” Alex said and Kara put a white peg down with a scowl. “All right fine. But why do you think she’s innocent? B-6.”

“Miss,” Kara said triumphantly. “Because I’m good at reading people. She’s elusive, mysterious even. But I didn’t sense any hidden agendas or motives. I think she’s just a good person who wants to build a life for herself outside her family’s name. J-10.”

“Really? Going for the corner spot? Miss. I’m not that dumb,” Alex chided with a competitive smirk. “Are you sure you’re not projecting something on her? Or do I sense something else, perhaps? F-7.”

Kara paused, hating herself a little when she felt her cheeks turn red. “No,” she said indignantly. “And hit,” she added in a mutter. “G-2.”

“Mhmm,” Alex said with a sly smile. “Miss. So you think she’s hot? F-6.”

Kara felt her face flush even more, curse her bashfulness. And curse her adoptive sister for knowing her so well. “Hit, sink,” she grumbled. “And _no_ I don’t. I just think we should give her a chance is all.”

“I got your destroyer already? Heck yeah! And if you don’t want to spy on her, then why did you accept the job offer?” Alex asked, looking up from the game board in her lap.

“Because I’m not just Supergirl, Alex! I’m a person too, I want a life too, I need more than just a family crest and a cape. I’m Kara Zor-El, I’m Kara, I just want to be _Kara_!” she poured out all at once, pushing away her game board and sprang off the couch. She crossed to the fridge and pulled it open, staring angrily at the contents.

“Whoa, Kara I know. We talked about this already, it’s okay,” Alex reassured her, concern rippling through her brow. “I meant more like, why _this_ job? I know you got other job offers. Why choose to work for Lena specifically if you don’t plan on spying on her?”

Kara grabbed a can of generic grape soda from the fridge, her scowl easing a little. “Do I have to have a reason? Out of all the places I interviewed, I just liked her the best. And hers pays the most. Isn’t that why all people take jobs? They like their boss and the pay is good?”

“All right, I’m convinced,” Alex said with a reassuring smile. “And I support you. I think this will be good for you. I’ve been trying to tell you for ages to get a life outside of the D.E.O. and Supergirl, let the record show.”

“Funny, I’ve been trying to tell you the same thing,” Kara shot back with a cheeky smile.

“Ha ha. You’re hilarious,” Alex quipped.

Kara stuck out her tongue.


	2. The New Boss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Imma let you all make your assumptions about who the reporter is. If you feel like bastardizing a certain someone in your head cannon, that's fine by me. XD XD

Kara was thrilled to find her desk was huge and fancy and made of mahogany. She’d never had desk made of mahogany. It all felt very official and perhaps a little opulent, but you know what? She had earned it, dang it. The top floor of L-Corp was mostly executive office suites and the legal department, and Kara’s desk was planted right in front of Lena’s office. Kara suspected Lena chose this positioning of her assistant’s desk to keep unwanted drop-ins from happening. Which Kara was happy to be Lena’s Kryptonian meat shield against intruding humans if need be. She’d certainly had harder jobs as Supergirl.

Kara spent the first two weeks working at L-Corp training with Jess (the Director of Operations), decorating her new fancy mahogany desk with lots of plants and tasteful decorations, learning Lena’s hectic schedule, filtering through Lena’s business emails for her, and more. Kara learned quickly, though the work required adaptability to Lena’s constantly changing schedule and various projects Lena outsourced to Kara.

During the initial two weeks, Kara didn’t even see that much of Lena. The CEO was always busy doing something, whether in her office or in the large basement laboratory. On the Monday of the third week, Kara finally got to work with Lena, and she found herself giddy as she awaited her boss’s arrival. When the elevator door opened and Lena stepped out, Kara rose from her desk (having carefully reheated Lena’s coffee with heat vision just before she arrived) and offered the coffee and a bagel to Lena as she strode up.

“Good morning, Miss Luthor,” Kara said with a bright smile as the CEO accepted the coffee and bagel.

“Oh, please call me Lena,” the brunette said and took a sip of the offered drink. Her eyes widened in surprise and she looked down at the coffee cup in her hand. “Oh wow, it’s still so hot. How did you get this here so quickly? I can’t remember the last time I had hot coffee.”

Kara made a mental note to always heat Lena’s coffee. She very much liked Lena’s smile and decided she was going to try and get her to smile as much as possible. “I’m a really fast walker. Or so I’ve been told,” Kara replied with a bright smile.

“Well thank you. You have no idea how much I needed this today,” Lena said, sitting at her desk. She gestured to the other chair for Kara to sit, which she did. “What’s on the schedule today?”

“We’ve reserved our whole morning for going over the L-Corp Lab in Nevada,” Kara replied. “You said you found some suspicious discrepancies in some of the reports you’ve read about the projects there. Then a board meeting at one after lunch, then an action plan for the lab. You also requested that I schedule you in for an interview with a local radio or talk show, so at 4 o’clock the producer of ‘ _Good Morning National City_ ’ would like to speak with you about the details and date. This was in regards to an upcoming gala you’re throwing to raise money for the children’s hospital, right?”

“Yes, thank you for reminding me! I’ll need to make some calls, rub elbows with some rich snobs and hopefully loosen some wallets,” Lena said, her eyes distracted by her computer, which she was currently typing on. “But one thing at a time. I need a second pair of eyes on this. Help me look over some of these reports from the labs. Look for anything out of the ordinary, inconsistent, or just plain suspicious. That lab’s main focus is bio-engineering, but with a heavy emphasis on medical engineering, like testing 3-D printed organs or robotic limbs for people or soldiers who have lost limbs. But some of the reports seem to indicate research more cyborg in nature, and I want no part of that ethical or PR nightmare. I’m trying to distance myself from the Luthor name, not embrace it.”

“Of course Miss—L-Lena,” Kara corrected herself, blushing when Lena gave her a soft, appreciative smile.

“Speaking of Luthors,” Lena said, her face suddenly darkening, “if Lillian Luthor ever comes to this office, do me a favor and don’t let her in. I have nothing to say to her, and I certainly don’t want to hear what she has to say.”

“No Lillian. Got it,” Kara said, putting a note on her tablet—a device she’d pretty much not set down since getting hired.

Lena looked at her for several moments, as if surprised by this response. “What, you’re not going to hound me with questions?”

Kara looked up from her tablet. “I’m not here to judge complicated family relationships. Believe me, my mother isn’t even alive and I have a complicated relationship with her.”

“Your mother passed away? I’m so sorry, Kara,” Lena said softly, her beautiful eyes radiating so much sympathy it kind of made Kara want to cry. “My biological mother passed away too. Lillian is my adoptive mother.”

“You’re adopted too? Small world,” Kara said with a soft blush creeping across her cheeks. She looked away and pushed her glasses up more out of instinct than necessity. She had a tendency to do it often around Lena.

“So it is,” Lena agreed, that beautiful smile of hers taking on a suspiciously flirtatious edge. Or maybe Kara was just imagining it? It was hard to say, but Kara liked to think it was flirtatious.

They spent the next few hours poring over all the reports from the lab, and although this was the only the first full day of working with Lena, Kara already liked her beautiful boss. She was kind and very clearly had a tender heart of gold, though she carefully barricaded that heart behind iron bars. Bars that Kara could see right through, of course.

Around noon, Lena suddenly pushed herself away from her desk. “I need a break,” she said, rising to her feet. “Let’s go to lunch. Have any food allergies or restrictions I need to know about?”

Kara stood as well and tucked her tablet in her arm. “I will literally eat anything,” she replied with a grin.

Lena chuckled. “Hmm. Challenge accepted.”

Twenty minutes later Kara found herself eating a bowl of Thai tom-yum soup in a local Thai restaurant. She had ordered the most amount of spice possible (specifically five stars because Lena had dared her), and was currently enjoying the subtle impressed look Lena was giving her. Although her powers protected her from the burn of the capsaicin in the Thai pepper flakes, it added more flavor, so she was happy to order extra stars of spice. Lena went with a gentler coconut chicken curry which smelled delicious, and they were enjoying light discussion about the upcoming gala when Kara’s keen ears suddenly heard the distinct sound of people arguing just outside the restaurant. She took a large bite of soup then casually looked through the wall of the restaurant by the door. She saw a man and a woman, and she could hear them quietly arguing about whether or not they should go in.

“Come on, this could be the big break we’ve been waiting for! My boss is always riding my ass for this kind of shit. People eat it up!” the guy said.

“She’s eating lunch, just leave her alone,” the woman said. “As if she’ll give you some exclusive.”

“Yeah but if I take her by surprise, I might get a sound bite, and that’s the shit that gets clicks by the idiot masses. Do you know how rare it is to catch Lena Luthor in public? The woman is practically a ghost!” he argued.

“You also might make an ass of yourself and get nothing,” the woman shot back. “You think she’s never dealt with assholes in the media trying corner her searching for click bait?”

“Whatever, ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained.’ If you don’t wanna be on the by-line, that’s your prerogative,” he said, and the next thing Kara knew, the door to the restaurant was flying open. The man crossed straight to their table, planting himself in front of them. “Miss Luthor, is it true you’ve kept funding going to the many laboratories of Lex Luthor and Luthor-Corp which have known affiliations to terrorist organizations such as Cadmus?”

Kara rose to her full height and stepped directly in front of the man. She placed a cheerful smile on her face, but stood intentionally too close to him than was at all comfortable by human standards. “When Miss Luthor is ready to discuss the finer details of her company’s inner workings, she will have a press conference. You’re more than welcome to ask her questions then.”

“Kara, you don’t have to—” Lena began, but the man cut her off.

“And who are you, her bodyguard?” he asked, and there was something in his sneer that made Kara want to forceably remove it from his face.

“I’m the person who is going to politely answer your questions outside,” she replied, then grasped him firmly by his elbow and led him from the restaurant. He tried several times to break free of her strong grip quite unsuccessfully.

“Jesus, what kind steroids are you on?” he demanded when she released him once they were outside.

“What’s your name?” Kara asked, ignoring him.

“I’m with the Daily Planet, that’s all you need to know,” he snapped.

Kara glanced at the woman who hadn’t followed him into the restaurant. She had a large camera on her shoulder and was currently filming their interaction.

“I just wanted to know the name of the man I’m going to file harassment charges against,” Kara replied with a smile that made him shift uneasily. “What makes you think you have a right to treat her in such a disrespectful way?”

“She’s a Luthor,” he shot back. “Whatever Lex was up to, I guarantee she was in on it too. They’re all the same.”

“Would you like to know what she was doing all morning? Going through records of some of those aforementioned labs to find out which ones are still performing unethical experiments so she can shut them down. You want to know what she’s doing the rest of the day? Planning a charity event to raise money for a children’s hospital. Now, are we done here?” Kara asked, looking between him and the camera woman.

“Yet another Luthor lackey, I see,” he spat. “Why do you all flock to Luthors like sheep?”

“You’re being very rude,” Kara said smoothly. “And we’re done here.”

“I don’t have to—” he started.

“No. You’re done,” Kara cut him off, widening her stance and folded her arms. “Leave.”

“Or you’ll what?” he asked, though his voice faltered. “We’ve got this all on camera. If you lay so much as a finger on me—”

“Leave. Now,” she repeated, not moving a muscle, but not breaking eye contact with him.

“Again, what are you—” he tried again.

“I’ll stand here all day if I have to. Though I suspect the owner is going to call the police soon. This is a private business, and you’re trespassing and harassing their patrons. Are you quite finished? Have you had your fun yet?”

“Let’s go,” the woman said suddenly, lowering the camera.

“No, I’m staying—”

“You’re being an ass and there’s no story here,” the woman interrupted. “It was a shitty idea to begin with. Come on. I’m not going to provide video evidence if she punches you, because frankly, you’d deserve it.”

He looked as though he might burst a blood vessel, but he turned and stomped off. Once they were around the corner, Kara went back inside and to the counter where the owner was hovering nervously.

“I’m terribly sorry for the scene,” Kara said with a gentle smile. “I hope this doesn’t prevent us from being allowed back. Your tom-yum soup is the best in National City.”

“You and Miss Luthor are always welcome here,” he said, his Thai accent clinging to his vowels. “Her children’s hospital saved my daughter’s life when she was born. She will always be welcome here.”

Kara was positively beaming when she sat back down across from Lena. “Okay this is officially my new favorite restaurant,” she said, taking a huge bite of soup like nothing had happened.

“What?” Lena said, her eyes wide and her mouth ever so slightly agape as she looked at Kara in shock.

“What?” Kara echoed, suddenly concerned. “Did. . .did I do something wrong?”

“Wrong?” Lena said, her face still a mask of complete disbelief. “ _Kara_. Of _course_ you didn’t do anything wrong. I just. . . no one’s ever, _ever_ stood up for me like that. I. . . I don’t know what to . . . Thank you. Just. . . _thank you_.”

Kara found herself reaching across the table for Lena’s hand and gently stroked it with her thumb. “Of course. Not defending you would make me a kind of terrible assistant. But more importantly, it would make me a kind of terrible person in general.”

A softness entered Lena’s eyes that Kara hadn’t seen yet, a chip in her armor that revealed a glimpse of the tender heart beating beneath those carefully constructed walls. A few moments later, Kara realized her hand was still on Lena’s—a gesture not inappropriate by Kryptonian standards, but by human standards it was downright intimate. It had taken Kara several years to adjust to human levels of affection, or lack thereof. Or at least American affection. She’d heard Europeans were significantly less prudish, which made her wonder why Clark had left her with Americans and not Europeans.

Lena sat back in her chair, her hand slipping from Kara’s, though Kara didn’t get the feeling it was because Lena felt uncomfortable. “Something tells me I’m going to be paying you large quarterly bonuses at this rate. You’ve already gone above and beyond the call of duty.”

Kara found herself blushing and pushed her glasses up. “Well I didn’t do it for the _money_ ,” she said sheepishly.

Kara again saw something new enter Lena’s thoughtful gaze, a deep fondness which surprised the Kryptonian—humans were generally slow to trust and even slower to display fondness. It was making it exceptionally difficult not to develop a massive crush on her boss.

“Well, all the same,” Lena said softly. “Thank you, Kara.”

* * *

Lena was feeling terribly, achingly, (embarrassingly) conflicted about her new assistant. On the one hand, Kara was a wonderful assistant. She always brought Lena hot coffee and warm smiles, she was always early to work, and she never missed a single detail. In the few weeks of working with Kara, she’d never experienced things running so smoothly in her whole life. She felt like she could accomplish anything with Kara by her side. None of that was the problem. Well, except maybe the warm smiles.

The only idiosyncrasy Kara demonstrated was excessive bathroom breaks, but Kara had warned Lena of her weak bladder when she was hired. She always seemed a little ruffled when she returned from the bathroom which Lena didn’t quite understand, but she didn’t question it; that was Kara’s business.

None of these things were problems. It was those damn sapphire eyes. Those. Those were the problem. It was those soft lips and beautiful smile. It was that beautiful neck, those strong, toned arms, and that hair. But definitely those eyes. . .

Lena closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, exhaling a deep sigh. She’d caught her gaze wandering yet again to her beautiful assistant for the hundredth time that week. She was doing her absolute damndest to keep things strictly professional with Kara, but it was trying work--being in such close proximity with someone so incredibly wonderful every day. Lena threw herself into her work by means of coping—something she was determined to do since she was the one who got herself into this mess in the first place by hiring Kara. They’d made incredible progress finding the root of the problem in the Nevada laboratory. They’d narrowed it down to about a dozen scientists and four managers/administrators, all of whom Lena was planning to fire and replace. They had made plans to have a hiring fair of sorts in Las Vegas to replace the people she was going to fire, and she had asked Kara to come with her to Vegas for support and assistance with the job fair. It was a monumental undertaking, but Kara had made nearly all the arrangements in a few short days for the job fair, including advertising and finding potential candidates for Lena to poach from other companies. Kara was fortunately too distracted with her ever-present tablet to notice Lena had been looking at her.

Lena straightened in her chair and pulled open her emails to distract herself and gave herself a mental tongue lashing. She couldn’t have feelings for her assistant. She just couldn’t. She absolutely could _not_ be _that_ slimy CEO walking cliché that would sleep with her assistant. The scary part was, she wasn’t entirely sure Kara would say no if she propositioned the blonde. Not because Kara was at risk of falling victim to “quid-pro-quo,” but because Lena was beginning to think Kara liked her too.

It would have been easy enough to believe Kara was just like that with everyone, but she’d seen Kara interact with a lot of people. There was a certain smile she seemed to reserve only for Lena. There was a certain closeness and soft touches that Lena had yet to see her assistant demonstrate with anyone else.

Lena knew she should tell Kara to behave more “professionally,” but that would mean no more warm smiles or soft brushes of her fingertips that lit up Lena’s skin like a wildfire. And what would be the point of coming to work anymore if she couldn’t see that beautiful smile any longer? _‘Uuugghhhh pull yourself together Lena Luthor!’_ she yelled at herself in her mind.

“All right, your jet is scheduled to take us to Las Vegas tomorrow morning,” Kara said, looking up from her tablet. “All the arrangements have been made. Nervous?”

“Of firing some scientists who have no qualms performing unethical and possibly illegal experiments? Not even a little,” Lena replied. “I’m only worried I won’t be able to find good people to replace them. I don’t want to shut that lab down if I don’t have to. It’s doing really good work, _vital_ work for people in need. I’ve seen some of the advancements they’ve made in robotic limbs and 3-D printed organs, and it’s changing medicine as we know it. Why must humans always ruin good things?”

“Not all good things. Humans haven’t ruined you,” Kara said without a hint of irony or teasing in her voice or face.

And there it was again. That beautiful, warm smile that just melted all of Lena’s insides and made her want to sob stupidly happy tears. Damn this beautiful woman and all her beautiful charms. Damn it. Just _fuck_. “Keep that up and my over-inflated ego won’t be able to fit through the door,” Lena deflected, mostly hoping to make Kara stop _smiling_ at her like that.

Kara’s smile only deepened (DAMN it). “I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Your ego is perfect just the way it is.”

Lena was absolutely sure if she were a pound of butter, she’d be an outright melted mess all over the floor. She politely cleared her throat. “How about you go home early tonight? You’ve worked really hard these last few weeks and we have an early flight.”

Kara’s face brightened even further. “Really? Thank you! Can I get you anything before I leave? Actually, maybe you should just come with me and take the evening off too. You work entirely too hard, and that has to mean something coming from me because I see how hard you work.”

Lena realized she would literally go anywhere in the galaxy with Kara in that moment. It also made her realize she needed to fight much harder against all these fucking _feelings_ for god sakes. “Oh don’t worry about me. I just have a small thing to finish up, then I’ll head home.”

“Promise?” Kara said, slipping into her coat.

Lena couldn’t stop an appreciative smile from spreading through her lips. “Promise.”

“All right, see you tomorrow. And don’t forget to pack; we’re going to be there for almost two weeks, you know.”

“Kara.”

“Okay, okay I’m going home now! Have a good night, Lena,” Kara said with yet another warm smile from that seemingly endless well of warmth and smiles.

“Good night, Kara.”

Lena watched Kara go, only realizing after the blonde left that she’d been staring at her ass the whole way out. _Damn it all._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooh they're going to Vegas?? Who can guess whatever shall happen there?? XD XD


	3. What Happened in Vegas??

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the comments and kudos and love!

Lena rubbed her forehead in exhaustion/frustration from dealing with disgruntled/pissed off former employees, several of whom had told her to either rot in hell or go fuck herself in so many words. She wanted to run her hands through her hair, but she’d worn it in what she liked to call her “power ponytail” to go with her black pinstripe pantsuit. She didn’t think she would have even gotten through all that firing without Kara sitting next to her. Kara had a way of making her feel safe, like she was wrapped in a bulletproof, weighted blanket somehow.

Kara rose from the table and a few moments later returned with a glass of water from a nearby water cooler and offered it to Lena. “That was the last one, you made it!” she said with a warm smile. “Those were some very generous severance packages you offered. After the treatment you’ve received, I’d say most of them were very undeserving.”

Lena accepted the offered water and took a long drink. “Thank you,” she said when the cup was emptied. She glanced around the small conference room. “I need to get out of here. Want to go to dinner somewhere here at the Palazzo, or would you rather go somewhere else?”

“I’ve been dying to try the all-you-can-eat crab buffet,” Kara replied with an excited smile.

Although Lena’s nerves were shot and she was exhausted, that smile went a long way toward making her feel better. “I get the sense I shouldn’t challenge you to a ‘who can eat the most’ competition.”

“Not unless you like losing,” Kara replied with a smirk as she held up Lena’s coat for her.

Lena stood and allowed Kara to help her into the coat. After Lena pulled it up over her shoulders, Kara ran her hand down along Lena’s spine which sent a trail of electricity right along with it. She involuntarily shivered.

“Let me go to my room and change first. I’ve been in this all day and I’d like to have some fun tonight,” Lena said, striding for the door. “Meet you at the buffet in an hour?”

“Okay, can’t wait!” Kara beamed.

* * *

Kara stared at the contents of her suitcase with a terrible feeling of panic settling most uncomfortably in her stomach. She wanted to dress up, to look sharp and devastating, but she definitely didn’t have such an outfit in her current belongings. She supposed she could fly back to National City to scour her wardrobe, but she wasn’t sure she had anything suitable for a night on the town there either.

She settled for calling Alex.

“Hey, how’s Vegas?” Alex answered after a couple of rings. “Hopefully you’ve done nothing yet that needs to stay in Vegas?”

“Haha, you’re so funny,” Kara quipped. “I’ve literally been working this whole time. How’s National City? Hopefully not a land of total chaos without me?”

“Wow, someone has an over-inflated sense of self-importance,” Alex said, her voice oozing sarcasm. “We’re all managing to cling to life without you somehow.”

Kara snorted a chuckle. “Oh good. Glad to hear it.”

“So what’s up? I can’t chat long; the boys and Maggie are coming for game night pretty soon,” Alex said.

“You’re having game night without me?” Kara pouted.

“I mean, you can join us if you want. You can be here in what, two minutes?”

“Don’t insult me. I can be there in two _seconds_ ,” Kara shot back.

“Exactly, so why don’t you come over?” Alex asked.

“Oh, um. I sort of have dinner plans and I don’t know what to wear and please help,” Kara blurted out all at once before she could talk herself out of it. She braced herself for whatever shit-giving Alex had in store.

“Dinner plans, hmm?” Alex practically purred, her voice radiating amusement. “These ‘dinner plans’ wouldn’t _happen_ to be with a certain beautiful heiress boss, now would they?”

“We’re in a five star hotel and I want to look nice is all!” Kara huffed defensively.

“I see. So wanting to look _devastatingly_ beautiful for the evening has nothing to do with your dear Miss Luthor?” Alex continued.

“Are you quite finished?” Kara snapped.

“Almost. Am I wrong? I don’t hear you denying it,” Alex said.

“Okay, you know what? I think I’ll just call Maggie instead. She has excellent taste.”

“Okay, okay,” Alex laughed. “What look are you going for? Like evening gown dress to the nines, or sexy party/clubbing fare?”

“The latter? I want to look nice, but not like I’m trying _too_ hard, you know?” Kara replied.

“You’re staying at the Palazzo, right? Aren’t there a ton of 24-hour shops there where you can buy a cute outfit?” Alex asked.

“Oh. Well I suppose, but it’s not like anything here is affordable,” Kara said.

“Yeah, but you’re an ‘executive’ now, remember? I’m sure you can afford it. If not, fly your ass home and find something,” Alex replied most unhelpfully.

“Don’t you have something I can borrow?” Kara whined.

“Oh my god, you’re such a little sister sometimes,” Alex said and Kara could practically see her sister’s eye roll.

“Uuugh fine I’ll take my chances with one of the stores here because clearly you’re in a _mood_ tonight,” Kara said and pursed her lips.

“Glad we agree on something. Want to video chat after you’ve picked something out so all of us can judge whether or not you’re _bracingly_ sexy enough for your date?” Alex said and Kara could hear the smirk in her voice.

“You’re the literal worst,” Kara groaned. “Have fun at game night.”

“Remember to use a condom!” Kara heard Alex tease before pressing the “end” button on the call. She grimaced. Sometimes her sister was so insufferable.

About 45 minutes later, Kara stood in front of several full-body mirrors in a changing room, investigating all angles of the outfit she was currently trying on. She’d probably tried on a hundred at this point, and she was getting really sick of this dressing room. She currently wore a sleeveless, backless black halter top with black pinstripe slacks. She’d chosen a pair of lovely black boots with 3-inch heels and she had to admit, she looked pretty darn good. She wondered what Lena would think of the ensemble. Kara hoped she would like it. After deciding the outfit was suitable, she paid and headed for the restaurant, telling herself the giddiness in her stomach was definitely just hunger.

She scanned the restaurant but didn’t see Lena yet. A hostess walked up to Kara with a very large, very fake smile plastered all over her face. “Good evening, and how many will be dining with us tonight?”

“Two please,” Kara replied.

“Going to sit without me?” a voice said behind Kara. “Someone’s anxious to dig into that ‘all you can eat’ I think.”

Kara turned and found herself gazing into bright green eyes. No matter how much she looked at them, they had a way of rendering her speechless. Kara’s eyes carved a path down Lena’s body to the red, low-cut sleeveless blouse, down to black slacks that hugged those thighs in a way that felt downright indecent, and knee-high boots that were belted down the sides.

“L-Lena, hi,” Kara said as if she hadn’t just seen her boss an hour ago. Then again, acclimatizing to Lena’s hair, styled in soft curls that fell about her shoulders, was proving a monumental task. “After you,” she added, stepping aside to allow Lena through first.

The hostess led them to a fancy table in a fancy booth positioned dangerously close to the huge buffet table. Kara spent the next hour impressing Lena with the sheer volume of potstickers and fresh crab she could pack away. She learned more about Lena during dinner, like her mother was Irish, and she loved kittens, but because she was half Luthor, she could be quite ruthless and calculating, but battled hard against that part of herself. About an hour and a half into dinner, Lena began to relax and open up even more, though Kara suspected it might have something to do with the three glasses of wine the brunette had consumed. Deciding she didn’t want Lena to feel like she was partying alone, Kara excused herself to the “bathroom” to go find some alien alcohol.

“How about you order us some dessert? Surprise me, order whatever you want. Remember, I told you I will literally eat anything,” Kara said with a playful grin before slipping away.

Alien alcohol, as it turned out, was really easy to find in Vegas. She super-sped from the hotel once she was out of view of all cameras, and found a shady little liquor store just off the Strip, which after a quick X-ray revealed the cashier was an alien. She purchased a flask of something called “Dragon’s Death,” and after paying, the cashier cautioned her to only a couple of sips per evening. She sped back to the hotel restaurant, taking a sip along the way in hopes of catching up to Lena’s level of intoxication.

“There you are! I just ordered us—” Lena started.

“No don’t tell me! It’s supposed to be a surprise!” Kara interrupted as she sat down.

“Oh right. Ssshh,” Lena played along, placing her index finger to her lips with an adorably goofy grin.

“You have really pretty hands,” Kara blurted out, gazing dreamily at all the prettiness of Lena. Wow, okay so apparently this stuff was super fast acting.

Lena’s impossibly pretty eyes widened in surprise, and she grabbed her glass of wine and proceeded to empty it in one long gulp. She then set the glass on the table and delicately wiped the corners of her mouth with her napkin. “Kara, I—”

“Here we are, our Mount Vesuvius Lava Cake á la mode. Enjoy!” their server interrupted whatever she was about to say, placing a ridiculously huge lava cake down on the table between them. The lava cake itself had been cleverly built around a small propane torch in the center which gave the cool effect that the volcano was erupting.

“Ohmygosh it’s so cool! I’m going to literally eat all of this,” Kara enthused.

Lena laughed and pulled out her phone. “I’m definitely going to need video evidence of whatever is about to happen.”

A lot of giggling and messily eating dessert ensued. Kara wasn’t sure if it was the alien alcohol or just being with Lena, but she couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much fun. And it only got better from there. When the server came out with the bill and Kara tried to pay, Lena reminded her that this was an all-expenses-paid business trip. Afterwards they giggled all the way to the bathroom because their fingers and lips were covered in chocolate. Once again, Kara wasn’t sure if it was just the alcohol talking, but she _definitely_ wanted to lick that chocolate off Lena’s lips.

“Let’s play roulette!” Kara declared after taking another sip of the alien alcohol from inside her bathroom stall, then slipped it back in her purse.

“I’m partial to Blackjack,” Lena replied as they washed their hands. “Don’t tell anyone,” she continued in a dramatic whisper, “but I know how to count cards.”

“Scandalous! Cheat!” Kara teased.

“It is _not_ cheating!” Lena huffed. “It’s a legitimate strategy! Besides, the house always wins in the end; it’s literally designed to ensure that it wins.”

“This is true. What a racket Vegas is running! Let’s bring down the house, Miss Luthor!” Kara exclaimed.

Lena giggled—a sound Kara enjoyed way too much. “Okay!” Lena said with a mischievous grin.

Two hours later, they really did bring down the house. Kara convinced herself it was definitely the crazy alcohol, because she apparently no longer had qualms with cheating. She used X-ray vision to look through the dealer’s cards and doubled down any time he had a lower count than her and won thousands of dollars. Then, feeling guilty, she and Lena gave all their winnings to a newlywed lesbian couple they found who had run away together from homophobic families and eloped.

After that the details got a bit fuzzy for Kara. She remembered rock climbing and playing in the fountain in front of the Bellagio (and getting chased away by security), and a really fancy club somewhere. She also remembered some building called the “Chapel of the Bells,” whatever that was, and a lot of flowers.

The next thing she remembered, she was waking up in her hotel room the next morning. She was incredibly grateful for super healing, because she was sure she’d have a rager of a hangover without her powers. She stretched and rolled over, spooning up behind the warm body next to her, nuzzling into thick black hair. And _Rao_ that hair smelled so good. Gradually Kara became aware she didn’t actually remember going to bed with anyone. She blinked several times. Just as she began pulling away to try and get her bearings, the person stirred and rolled over. She found herself staring into incredible jade eyes.

Kara blinked again. “L-Lena?!”

Lena blinked several times too. “K-Kara. . .?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heh heh heh. Let the pining and angst and fluff commence!


	4. Should This Stay in Vegas?

Lena’s mind raced a million miles an hour as she took stock of the situation, her heart threatening to hammer its way straight out of her chest. She glanced down and saw she was wearing boxers and a white T-shirt (though none of it was hers). Thank god for small mercies. If she'd had drunk sex she couldn't even remember with Kara, she'd never forgive herself. She racked her brain, trying desperately to remember the events of last night. She remembered going to dinner, having one too many glasses of wine, gambling, meeting a lovely lesbian couple, a loud nightclub, one too many shots of whiskey, and for some reason flowers and a chapel.   


“Oh my gosh, Lena, I am so sorry! I must have had one drink too many and fell asleep here,” Kara sputtered, leaping out of the bed like a frightened rabbit. Lena saw what happened to her own PJs--Kara had apparently worn them. Lena had to admit, Kara looked quite nice in the black satin tank top and pajama bottoms. 

Lena rose from the bed and glanced around. “It’s all right, Kara. It would appear it was I who spent the night in your room, so I should be the one apologizing,” Lena said, crossing to the hotel closet to find a robe. Fortunately she found one and slipped into it, taking a deep breath before turning to face the situation. She opened her mouth to say something, but just then realized there was a foreign feeling on her left hand. She lifted it, and when she saw a beautiful sapphire and diamond ring resting on her left ring finger, whatever panic she’d been feeling before was _nothing_ compared to the absolute terror she felt now. There was no way. Even in a drunken stupor, she absofuckinglutely could not have done something so horrendously foolish.

Could she??

She forced herself to look at Kara, but when she did, her heart sank into her stomach like a ball of curdled milk that made her feel violently ill. For Kara, too, sported a ring on her left ring finger, hers a band of what looked like pure jade. Confusion and apprehension colored her beautiful face.

“Um. . . why am I wearing. . .?” Kara started, but she trailed off when she saw Lena’s face. “Oh. Oh no.”

“Okay, let’s not jump to any conclusions,” Lena said upon finding her voice. “Maybe we just bought rings. We were quite drunk; it’s not out of the realm of possibility.”

“Phones!” Kara declared and began looking frantically around the room. “We had to have recorded _something_. It’s what I would do, especially drunk me.”

“Good idea,” Lena agreed and scoured the hotel room with Kara. They found their phones in their purses by the door, and Lena was glad, at least, that she wasn’t a complete disaster drunk who would lose her purse.

They both busied themselves looking through their photos, and it didn’t take Lena long to find several videos in her gallery. The thumbnail showed what looked like the outside of a chapel which did little to calm Lena’s nerves.

“I found something,” Lena said, cursing her voice for trembling. Kara hurried over to her and Lena (despite her brain screaming at her to drop her phone and run away) pressed play.

They proceeded to watch a very poorly filmed video of them giggling like school girls as they stumbled into a building called the “Chapel of the Bells.” Apparently they had at some point met back up with the lesbian couple to whom they had given their Blackjack winnings, and they were acting as their witnesses for the wedding. They watched as the two of them stood in front of a lavishly dressed marriage officiant in the ridiculous Vegas chapel and started the ceremony. However, when they got to the vows, Lena’s entire world felt like it was unraveling. 

“You’re the most prettiest person I’ve ever met, Lena Luthor. Inside and out,” drunk Kara on the video said when prompted by the officiant. “I want to be with you all the time, I think about you all the time, I’ve wanted you forever and ever and you have the most prettiest eyes. And speaking of eyes! Holy _cow_ can you keep those green things under control?? I can’t handle them. Can I just be with you all the time forever and ever?”

That smile plastered all over adorable drunk Kara’s face was so painfully cute it made Lena’s heart tighten like a clamp was crushing it.

“Yes,” drunk Lena replied, and embarrassingly enough Lena could see that she had actually _cried_. Okay, so maybe she was a sloppy drunk.

And then they kissed. And oh _god_ it looked so good and Lena desperately wished she could remember it. Realizing she was beet red and incredibly aroused, Lena quickly stopped the video and threw her phone away on the bed for good measure. They both stood there in stunned silence for what felt like a small eternity.

“Ooooh wow was _I_ drunk,” Kara broke the silence with an uncomfortable smile. “I’m really sorry for all this trouble.”

Of all the things Lena had hoped Kara would say, that didn’t even make the top 100. She didn’t know exactly what she wanted Kara to say, but it wasn’t that. There was something in Kara’s posture, something in the tightness of her smile, the way she rubbed her neck that had Lena’s heart sinking like the Titanic. Steel closed around her heart and she stepped away from Kara. “Don’t worry about anything. I’ll have my lawyers take care of an annulment; you’ll only have to sign a form in a couple days when they work it up.”

Lena then grabbed her phone and purse and fled from Kara’s room without looking back.

* * *

Kara sat heavily on the hotel bed, trying to figure out what just happened. She didn’t quite understand Lena’s reaction, but she felt as though she’d said something terribly wrong. If she was being completely honest with herself, she had reacted the way she did to give Lena an easy out, to pretend like everything was fine, to not show her true feelings on the whole matter. Which. . . no.

No. She couldn’t allow herself down that path. But apparently her brain disagreed with her, because she found her thoughts drifting to the video and that kiss. Oh Rao, that _kiss_. She didn’t even remember it, but she could see quite clearly from the video that Lena was an incredible kisser and oh how she yearned to experience it in a setting she could actually remember.

She was saved from such thoughts when she heard a notification sound on her phone. She opened to find she’d received a DM from the cute lesbian couple to whom they’d given their winnings last night. She couldn’t actually remember their names, but she was glad to see they’d exchanged social media info. Kara opened the message and read, _“Hey Kara and Lena! Thank you again sooo much for the winnings last night, we can still hardly believe we met you two! And your wedding?? Oh my goodness, SO honored we could be part of it; it was so beautiful! Hey, I just wanted to give you a heads up, paparazzi sometimes hangs out around the Vegas chapels in hopes of catching a story, and well. . . is Lena some kind of celebrity? I’ve been seeing some articles crop up in the local news circuit about you two. Just wanted to let you know so you can avoid any unwanted publicity. Anyway, thank you again so much! I wish for you two all the happiness in the world. <3 <3”_

Kara clicked the news link she had provided and began trying hard not to panic as she read several tabloid articles about “The Mysterious and Enigmatic Lena Luthor: Eloped in Vegas? And Who is Her Mystery Wife??”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Kara rose and crossed to the desk in the room. She grabbed the phone and dialed the number for room service. After someone answered, she ordered breakfast for herself and Lena and told them to send it to Lena’s room. She then dressed at super speed and gathered her phone, tablet, purse, and hers and Lena’s room key which Lena had given her when they first checked into the hotel (because Kara was Lena’s assistant after all). She then headed out to Lena’s room. When she arrived at her boss’s door, she took a deep breath, then knocked.

“Lena?” she said tentatively.

Her keen ears could hear Lena’s heartbeat which told her Lena was there. Kara inhaled deeply, mustering her courage. “Miss Luthor, please let me in. You gave me a room key, but I’d rather you answered.”

She heard Lena also exhale a deep sigh, but a few seconds later, her boss opened the door. The redness in Lena’s normally vibrant eyes had Kara wondering if she’d been crying, which desperately made her want to wrap Lena in her arms.

“I’m sure I’m the last person you want to see right now, but there’s been a development,” Kara said in what she hoped was a gentle tone.

“Come in,” Lena said, stepping aside.

Kara entered and sat on a large, fancy couch, doing her level best to present herself as “professional Kara.”

“It would appear we didn’t notice there was local paparazzi lurking around the chapel last night. Our secret wedding is no longer a secret,” Kara said and shared a couple of articles to Lena via email.

Lena sat on the other end of the couch (a distance Lena had never sat from Kara) and looked over the articles on her phone, her face pensive.

Kara took another slow, deep breath. “I understand completely if you plan to fire me; I will go without contest. But if, as your assistant, I may make a suggestion on how to handle this with as little damage to your reputation as possible?”

Lena looked up from her phone, confusion entering her eyes as she looked at Kara. “I’m not going to fire you, Kara. I have equal blame in this; it’s not as if you forced or coerced me. I’m the one who is to blame, not you. I’m your boss, this is all on me. To be honest, I would be shocked if you even want to continue working for me after my unprofessional behavior last night.”

“I’m not that easy to scare off, Miss Luthor,” Kara said, offering up a reassuring smile. “May I make a recommendation?”

“If you agree to still be my executive assistant, then by all means,” Lena replied, running her hand through her hair.

“I don’t think we should immediately get an annulment,” Kara said, making sure to keep her tone even and her posture straight and professional. “It might give the impression that you’re an irresponsible CEO, and that could damage yours and L-Corp’s reputation. I think we should uphold the marriage for just a few months, then quietly get an uncontested divorce. News outlets don’t have to know a thing and no one is the wiser, and your reputation remains untarnished. And since I doubt either of us had the soundness of mind to make me sign a prenup, you can have your legal team work up a contract stating I will not ask for any settlement money in the divorce. I would be more than willing to sign such a contract.”

“Oh god. . . I hadn’t even thought of that. But no. I’m not going to make you do that. I got myself into this mess and I’m prepared to deal with the consequences,” Lena replied. She jumped slightly when someone knocked on the door.

“Room service!” a muffled voice said from behind the door.

“I ordered us breakfast. I’ll get it,” Kara said, leaping up from the couch.

After retrieving the food from the door, Kara set it on the coffee table and offered Lena a cinnamon latte which she had ordered because she knew it was Lena’s favorite.

“Thank you,” Lena said softly and took a long drink.

“I know a couple of reporters,” Kara continued after Lena looked slightly calmer. “I can set up some of interviews to get the news circuit under control, give a couple of exclusive interviews. I can script us some answers, we can make it clear this isn’t a quid-pro-quo situation because good heavens it’s absolutely not; I can answer any questions and let them know I could have worked anywhere, that my livelihood isn’t dependent on this job, and we can work things out with HR. This will all blow over before you know it. I told you when you interviewed me, I won’t waver at the first sign of trouble, and that I’ll be your collaborator and accomplice. I wasn’t just saying that to impress you—I meant every word.”

“Your solution would certainly work well in my favor,” Lena said, and Kara saw concern enter her eyes. “But this definitely feels like it leans too heavily in my favor. I can’t ask you to do this for me, not even as my assistant. You’re offering something that goes well above and beyond the call of duty.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m much tougher than I look,” Kara said with a wry smile. “And besides, I also told you I would be your trusted friend. And as your friend, let me do this for you. We can get through this. And in the meantime, we go about business as usual. We throw the gala, raise money for charity, run your company.”

Lena still didn’t quite look convinced, so Kara pulled out her phone and began recording herself. “I just want this on video that I am helping Lena Luthor of my own volition. I was not coerced into our elopement in any way, and that in fact it was my idea to begin with. I also further state I will help her freely clear up all this PR mess, I will not use this situation for any monetary gain, and that I also do that of my own volition without any coercion at all. Oh and also the whole ‘pretend this marriage is real for PR” idea was mine, not Lena’s.”

She turned off the video then emailed it to Lena. “Convinced?”

A ghost of a smile teased the corners of Lena’s lips. “If you’re trying to convince me that you’re the most incredible assistant and person on planet Earth, then yes."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh noes, they have to stay married! Whatever shall they do? XD


	5. Facing the Music

“I’m sorry, I think I’m going to need you to repeat that. Because I thought you just said, ‘I got eloped in Las Vegas to Lena Luthor,’” Alex said, her face a mix of really wanting to be amused by the situation and grim mortification.

Kara called upon her proud Kryptonian genes to appear nonplused by her sister’s reaction. “Look. Despite the fact that I’m Kryptonian, I still make mistakes. And I’m prepared to deal with the consequences of my actions like an adult,” Kara replied.

“You married a _Luthor_ , Kara. A Luthor!” Alex nearly shouted, her entire countenance shifting from light teasing to complete scolding. “I guarantee there will be endless news coverage on this, you’ll be harassed by paparazzi and every journalist and blogger looking to make a name for themselves, but more importantly, this puts you in _direct_ line of sight of Lena’s mother and brother. God, Kara, what were you _thinking_?”

Alex began pacing her living room like a caged animal. Though Kara was actually flying home with Lena in the morning via Lena’s private jet, Kara had flown back the night before to tell Alex face to face what happened before she heard about it from some social media news circuit. It seemed a little silly to have to fly all the way back to Vegas just to fly back with Lena, but such was the life of secrecy involving Supergirl.

“Let me just go check my dresser for my big girl panties… oh right,” Kara shot back, pursing her lips. “I’m an adult and I can handle it.”

“This isn’t about whether or not you can handle it, Kara. Of _course_ you can handle it, you’re a fucking demigod,” Alex snapped. “This is about being that much closer to Lillian and Lex and _that_ puts you in serious danger!”

“And where was all this concern when I started working for Lena?” Kara countered, her hands finding her way to her hips.

“Working for Lena and being _married_ to her are two very different things and you know it,” Alex argued. “As her employee, you register as little more than a minion on their radar. But as Lena’s _wife_ , you’re a threat to them. You just showed up to the House of Luthor and you definitely weren’t invited. Delaying your annulment for the sake of Lena’s reputation is—”

“Not up for debate,” Kara interrupted before Alex might say something that would irritate her even further. “I’m not asking your permission, here, Alex. The DEO doesn’t own me just because I’m on their payroll. I made a mistake and I’m going to and am willing to deal with the consequences of my actions. And I’m asking you, as my sister, to have my back. And frankly hold off on lecturing me. There’s nothing you could say that I haven’t already told myself. You think any of this feels good for me? On Krypton, the equivalent we have of marriage is our most sacred of unions, and we _do not_ believe in divorce. I quite literally violated Kryptonians’ most sacred union with my own foolishness. I already feel bad enough; I don’t need you making me feel worse.”

Alex stopped pacing and her eyes gentled. “You’ve never told me that before. I’m sorry, I hadn’t thought about how hard this must be for you.”

Kara rubbed her face in agitation. “It’s all right. I would give you crap if you eloped to someone in Vegas too. I just really need your support right now.”

“Always,” Alex said, crossing to Kara and squeezed her arm reassuringly.

“You know the worst part of this whole thing? This whole mess has ruined any chance I might have had with her,” Kara said, suddenly fighting off a wave of emotion.

Concern flickered through Alex’s eyes. “The worst part? Wait, are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“I’m saying I have feelings for her,” Kara replied, avoiding Alex’s eyes. “And yes, I know she’s my boss, and yes I know she’s a Luthor. None of that matters. Kryptonians feel deeply, I think more deeply than humans even. I can’t just ignore my feelings until they fade. They don’t work like that.”

“Yeah, but working right next to her all day sure isn’t going to help either,” Alex said.

Kara pulled away from Alex and moved to the living room window, looking out over the twinkling city lights and softly falling rain. “Being away from her would only make it worse. I. . . Losing my whole world has made me a bit sensitive to pushing the people I care about away from me. Which makes it really difficult not to be ‘clingy’ by human standards. The only way I know how to describe to you in English would be to call it Hell on Earth.”

Alex stood next to Kara and put her arm around Kara’s shoulders. “You really care for her that much? After only a couple of months working at L-Corp?”

“I do. Rao help me,” Kara replied. “Despite the mess, yeah. I really do.”

* * *

Lena was doing her level best to focus on work. She had a lot of it—it should be easy. She still had a lot of details of the gala to plan, inventions whose specs needed work, paperwork to file, emails to read, decisions to be made that CEOs had to make when running an international, multi-billion dollar corporation. And yet here she sat in her comfortable private jet seat, laptop in front of her, staring sightlessly at her screen. They had just left Nevada skies, and she very much hoped she’d never see Las Vegas again. The only consolation was that she’d done what she set out to do; she had hired employees to replace all the ones she’d fired and with luck the lab would sort itself out. In the meantime she’d have her Operations VP keep a close eye on it.

Lena’s gaze drifted up from her laptop screen and to Kara before she realized she had done so. Kara’s feet were tucked up on her seat and her eyes were glued to her tablet as usual which rested on her knees. Her beauty shone through her dark rim glasses like the sun, though it was far more than physical beauty Lena saw.

She still couldn’t believe Kara had agreed to go to bat for Lena, to essentially take the fall, or at least share the fall. Lena couldn’t ever remember someone standing up for her. Lex certainly had his fair share of opportunities to stand for her to Lillian, but his not-so-subtle desire to be their mother’s favorite always won out in the end. Lena had grown quite accustomed to standing up for herself. It was the only reason she was still standing at all.

And then along came Kara Danvers.

Lena’s heart fluttered in her chest as though a flock of butterflies had just taken up residence in her respiratory system. It was impossible not to have feelings for the wonderful person sitting in front of her.

Which was precisely why she could never act on her feelings. How many times had she seen Lillian or Lex use their positions of power to use and manipulate those who served or worked for them? Or any other number of obscenely wealthy people in power who took what they wanted without any consequence?

She tore her eyes from Kara and focused with renewed vigor on her work. She would get past this the same way she moved on from everything. With dedicated concentration, and respect for Kara’s boundaries.

“Have you scheduled us any interviews yet?” Lena asked, keeping her tone neutral and intentionally didn’t look up from her screen this time.

“I have a couple potential interviewers. Cat Grant from CatCo Magazine has expressed interest. Lois Lane from the Daily Planet also said she wouldn’t mind a bit of a puff piece. She recently had a huge story break that put her life in all kinds of danger, so she said it would be a nice change of pace,” Kara replied. “Of the two of them, she’d probably go a lot easier on us—she’s my cousin’s wife.”

“Your cousin?” Lena asked before she could stop herself. She was trying _not_ to ask personal questions, and she blew it already. Apparently her brain was determined to fail her explicitly given instructions to _not_ grow any closer to Kara.

“Oh yeah, his name is Clark Kent. He works for the Daily Planet too. He’s a giant nerd, though. I don’t want him interviewing us,” Kara said and did that cute thing where she pushed her glasses up when Lena looked at her.

_‘Stop that!’_ Lena mentally chided herself and redirected her thoughts to the reporter. She’d heard of Clark Kent; he’d done quite a lot of reporting on Lex. She did a brief bit of mental math and curiosity overcame her. “You were thirteen when your parents passed away, right? Wouldn’t that put him in his mid-twenties when you were that age?”

Kara looked back at Lena with a questioning look. “I was, yes.”

“But you said you were adopted by the Danvers. Why didn’t Clark take you in? Isn’t he your only living family?” Lena asked.

Kara shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “It’s . . . complicated.”

“He should have taken care of you,” Lena blurted out before she could think the better of it. She then did think the better of it and realized she probably crossed a line. “Forgive me, I have strong opinions about family, despite having mostly insane relatives myself. I just know that if a thirteen year old cousin of mine showed up after having lost her only living relatives, I would absolutely take you in. I would find a way, even if monetarily I didn’t have the means at the time.”

Kara pushed up her glasses again—a motion Lena was coming to love far more than she should.

Lena cleared her throat. “Anyway, I’ll go with your recommendation for the reporter,” she said. “I hope we can at least use the interviews to get a little extra press for the gala and with any luck up the donations for the children’s hospital. Admittedly I don’t like it when celebrities use marital status like a business maneuver, because marriage means something very different to me, but at least something good can come of this mess, right?”

Kara gazed at Lena, a thoughtful look in her sapphire eyes. A slow smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “No regrets, Miss Luthor. I love an adventure, and something tells me this will be a fun one to retell someday. Don’t get me wrong, we’re in the thick of it right now and it’s stressful and there are some challenges ahead, but those are always the best stories to tell. With embellishments, of course,” she added with a wink.

Lena couldn’t stop a small smile from curving her lips. “Oh of course. Stories are hardly worth telling without a little embellishment.”

And there it was. Back after only three days. That warm Kara smile that radiated like the sun, heating every inch of Lena until she was at serious risk of melting all over her very expensive private jet.

_‘Stop that!’_

* * *

Kara nervously tapped her foot from the back stage area of CatCo Magazine’s filming studio—the venue they’d chosen for their “exclusive” interview. It had been a long and trying week of dealing with HR, reassuring the board, dealing with a lot of judgmental (and jealous) looks from other L-Corp employees, and dealing with a lot of amused looks from Alex. She felt like everyone was looking at her all the time. More so than usual, anyway. As a Kryptonian amongst humans she was used to humans stealing glances at her, but now it just felt excessive.

She glanced over at Cat Grant who was speaking with the producer. Kara had been interviewed twice by her before, once on TV as Supergirl, and once for a job as Kara Danvers. She liked the woman well enough, but the fact that she didn’t call Kara by her proper name was ultimately what made her choose Lena’s job offer and not Cat’s. Names on Krypton were incredibly meaningful, so to be called something other than her name was a deep insult. Kara gave Miss Grant the benefit of the doubt—it wasn’t as if the woman knew Kara was an alien, but it didn’t put the media mogul in particularly high standing in her mind.

“Hey, are you okay?” Lena’s warm voice filled the air around Kara, soothing her anxiety in an instant. The brunette’s soft hand slid over Kara’s arm, sending a shiver up Kara’s spine. “Because if you’ve changed your mind, we can walk out that door right now.”

Kara turned and found herself reaching for Lena’s hand, lacing their fingers when she found it. “You’re sweet, but I’m fine. I’m just a little nervous. She interviewed me for a job once and offered me the job, but I took your offer instead. I don’t know if she’ll remember me or not.”

Lena moved in a little closer, filling all of Kara’s powerful senses with all things Lena Luthor—a sensation entirely too intoxicating. Her smile, though cautious of Kara’s boundaries, was warm and genuine. “You’re rather difficult to forget. Also the producer is watching us, so how about we do a little convincing?”

Kara felt her cheeks burn as Lena pressed up against her side. The simple action had every muscle in her body screaming at her to react, to pull Lena into her arms and claim those lips again and again until the whole world knew Lena Luthor was _hers_ and hers alone. It also made her realize she really was attention starved as she leaned into the shorter woman, a happy grin on her lips. On Krypton she enjoyed constant familial affection in the form of hugs, kisses, and general closeness. It did make her worry slightly that her desire for Lena might only be due to Lena’s warmth, but as she gazed into the Luthor’s beautiful jade eyes, she had a strong feeling that wasn’t the case. Her warmth was but one of infinite reasons she had such intense feelings for Lena, certainly not limited to Lena’s kindness, generosity, intelligence, beautiful smile. . . again, the list was very long.

“Everything is ready, please take a seat,” the producer said, startling both Kara and Lena out of their gaze. Which. . . had she just been gazing adoringly at Lena? Whoops. Well at least it was convincing. Or at least that’s what Kara told herself in a very weak attempt to convince herself she wasn’t completely smitten with Lena.

They allowed themselves to be herded to the stage and sat next to each other on the love seat across from Cat’s interview chair. Kara mentally went over some of the answers they’d prepared for the interview as she once again laced fingers with Lena’s.

“How are you two this morning?” Cat asked, her smile professional but not unkind.

“I am well, thank you,” Lena answered, shifting almost imperceptibly closer to Kara. She heard Lena’s heartbeat increase and felt a wave of guilt. Lena was having to go through this because of her, and with that guilt came a wave of overpowering protectiveness.

“I’m fantastic! How are you Miss Grant?” Kara replied, giving the media mogul her most winning Kryptonian smile.

One of Cat’s eyebrows twitched ever so slightly. “Relax, Miss Danvers, the cameras aren’t rolling yet.”

“All right, we’re rolling in five,” the producer said then counted the rest silently to zero with his fingers.

Cat introduced the show and guests, though Kara tuned it out in favor of focusing on how tightly Lena was gripping her hand. If she were human it might have hurt, but as is, she was simply concerned. Did Lena hate being interviewed this much? She supposed it made sense—the elusive Luthor was infamously enigmatic.

“I’d like to start by saying thank you for agreeing to this interview, Miss Luthor,” Cat said as Kara tuned back into what she was saying.

“Thank you for having us,” Lena replied, and although her voice didn’t tremble, Kara could hear the tension in her vocal chords.

“I’m sure the viewers are dying to hear all about your elopement in Vegas, but before we dive into that, I was hoping to discuss some things about L-Corp for a bit?” Cat said and Kara felt Lena straighten ever so slightly.

“Of course,” Lena said evenly.

“Since taking over, you’ve made public many records about Luthor Corp, now L-Corp. What is the ultimate goal of yours by doing this?” Cat asked.

Kara saw the producer’s body language tense from behind the wall of cameras. Clearly he had counted on this being a puff piece and not a hard-hitting editorial. Fortunately, Kara had anticipated Cat making such a move and had prepared Lena’s answer like a good assistant. Not that Lena needed her to, of course, but she’d covered it nonetheless.

“I can’t undo all the things my brother has done,” Lena said, “but I have been given an incredible opportunity. I have the power and money to make the world a better place, and I intend to do so to the best of my ability. Transparency is just the first step in cleansing the Luthor name. The first step of many.”

“Your brother just wanted to make the world ‘a better, safer place for humans,’ I believe were his words,” Cat countered. “How do any of us know your intentions, however noble, aren’t the exact same as his?”

“I don’t know if you have siblings or children, Miss Grant, but I hope you never have to know what it’s like to have diametrically opposing philosophies and worldviews as them,” Lena replied. “Lex believed aliens bring only violence and discord to Earth and saw only ugliness. But he went looking for those things, and if you look only for ugliness in this world, you will find it in endless droves. He did and it drove him to madness. But there is so much more than that to the aliens I’ve seen come to this world, including, but not limited to, Supergirl. Now I’m not saying learning to share our planet will be easy by any stretch of the imagination. But just imagine what we could learn, what we could see and experience. The galaxy is knocking at our door. What fools would we be to lock the door?”

Kara was vaguely aware she was gazing at Lena with what was probably a very smitten grin.

“Interesting philosophy. And what would you say to Lex sympathizers?” Cat asked.

“I would say we are surrounded by an unknowably expansive universe, and whether we like it or not, there are other worlds with other people,” Lena answered. “And we can try to ignore it all we want, but sooner or later, humanity will join the galactic stage for better or worse. I’d personally like to start establishing allies rather than enemies, wouldn’t you?”

“Considering we’re not even a viably space faring species yet, wouldn’t you say it’s a bit foolhardy to open our doors to alien life?” Cat countered.

“Perhaps,” Lena admitted. “But if we make allies and share technology, we could be space faring far faster than on our own.”

“Fair point,” Cat said. “Now for the questions on everyone’s minds. Given the dynamic of your professional relationship, what made you decide to get married? And why elope? If it was meant to remain a secret, why offer an interview?”

“Why does anyone get married?” Kara answered. “We fell in love. We couldn’t have possibly anticipated our feelings for each other, but once we realized it, we decided why wait? And we eloped because we didn’t feel the need to involve the world in our personal affairs.”

“In the wake of the ‘Me Too’ movement, what would you say to your critics who will inevitably see this relationship as problematic at its best, and ‘quid pro quo’ at its worst?” Cat asked.

Kara straightened ever so slightly and held her head high. She’d prepared well for this exact question. “I challenge anyone who would try and tell me I’m the victim in any of this. I’ve already gone on record stating exactly that. Lena has been nothing but professional with me in the workplace.”

“But how does one go from working professionally with someone to married without delving into the realm of unprofessional?” Cat countered.

“Anything ‘unprofessional,’ as you say, took place outside of work. She’s my assistant; we spend a lot of time together both in and outside L-Corp. The feelings we had and actions we took were never on company property or time. We already went over all of these details with the board and HR,” Lena replied coolly. “It all happened rather quickly, to be honest.”

“Aren’t you at all concerned about the media attention—negative media attention—this will undoubtedly bring your new wife?” Cat asked, turning her piercing gaze to Lena. “Especially those who will accuse her of being a ‘gold digger’?”

“I’m a big girl, I can handle it,” Kara answered, drawing Cat’s gaze. “Bring on the critics and their assumptions. I know who I am and what I’m about. I know that I love Lena Luthor and want to be with her, just as I know I want to support her as her executive assistant.”

“I’d also like to remind viewers I don’t have a spouse and children waiting at home,” Lena added. “I’m not taking advantage of my position of power to have an office affair or holding a raise over her. Kara could work anywhere. She had several job offers outside of L-Corp, including CatCo Magazine. I married Kara Danvers, and that is not something that ever needs defending because she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Kara felt a swarm of butterflies take up residence in her stomach. That wasn’t one of the answers she’d prepared, though she’d be lying if she said she didn’t love hearing Lena say it. She found herself gazing adoringly at Lena once again.

“Speaking of, you’ve had overwhelming support in the realm of social media by the LGBTQ+ community. Why do you think people are quick to overlook office dynamics such as yours when it’s two people of the same gender than when it’s a male boss and a female employee?”

“Statistics, really,” Lena replied. “Historically there haven’t been nearly as many female executives, and even fewer openly queer female executives. Executive men have had a lot more time to establish such statistics, while women haven’t. I’m sure there have been plenty of cases of male executives genuinely falling in love with female employees and it ended up fine and there was no ‘quid pro quo’ involved. I’m not saying women don’t do it; the numbers just don’t exist yet. I think people respond differently when they see something outside the usual clichés.”

“Do you believe you behaved rashly by marrying your assistant, especially after such a short time?” Cat asked.

Lena glanced at Kara and their eyes locked for a moment that lingered into several heartbeats. “Maybe,” Lena said slowly. “But I have no regrets. I’d do it all again, a thousand times over.”

Kara had to physically bite her lower lip as she looked into Lena’s eyes to stop tears from welling up. There was no denying it. She was in love, and a Kryptonian in love was a very powerful, very unstoppable thing.

“Well I think it’s safe to say you two are still in the honeymoon phase of your marriage,” Cat quipped, cutting into the adoring gaze Kara and Lena were currently sharing. “We’re going to take a short break, and when we come back, we have exclusive photos of their secret wedding in Vegas. Stick around.”

Kara couldn’t really remember the rest of the interview. All she could focus on was repeating Lena’s (unscripted) words over and over in her mind. Did she really mean what she’d said? She had no regrets? She’d do it all again? She didn’t know if Lena meant those words or if she just said it for the camera, but trying to convince her soaring heart Lena didn’t meant it was proving quite impossible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aah Kara is so in love and Lena is so conflicted. So many feels! X3


	6. Meet the Luthors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I just posted a chapter, but I'm stress writing lol. Enjoy!

Lena did the only thing she could think to do after the interview. She fled to the nearest bathroom so she could quietly deal with the emotional fallout of said interview. Telling Cat Grant and the world how she felt about Kara was proving more than she was ready to handle, especially because she wasn’t just putting on a façade. Her feelings for Kara were all too real, and telling the world about them really wasn’t her idea of fun, especially since she wasn’t at all ready to admit them to herself. And it didn’t help that Kara had made her feelings all too clear in Vegas. As if she had a chance with someone like Kara. Kara Danvers was perfection personified, she was everything Lena could possibly want. But what person like that could possibly want her in return—a Luthor?

Fortunately those very accursed Luthor genes helped her get herself together after a few deep breaths. She also scolded herself as she stared angrily in the mirror. She had to be better than this. Kara deserved better than this. And that interview was probably the worst of it, which meant the worst was over, thank _god_. She could relax now. In a few months they’d have a quiet divorce and she could put all this foolishness behind her.

Just thinking the word “divorce” made her insides twist like un-oiled gears grinding together. It was foolish—it was all so _fucking_ foolish—but was it so terribly wrong to want to hold onto Kara for as long as she possibly could? She angrily pushed such thoughts from her mind and strode out of the bathroom. She was fully prepared to tell Kara it was time to leave when she saw the blonde talking to Cat Grant. Lena could tell from Kara’s posture that she was tense, possibly even uncomfortable. All of Lena’s anger was instantly forgotten and she planted herself next to Kara without hesitation.

“I hope I didn’t miss anything fun, did I darling?” Lena asked, boldly placing a soft kiss on Kara’s cheek. She knew she really shouldn’t have, but she did enjoy the soft blush that sprang to the blonde’s cheeks.

“Not too much,” Cat replied coolly. “I was just wondering if Kiera tries to marry all her bosses, because if so, it would seem I dodged a bullet.”

Lena knew what Cat was doing and she wasn’t having it. Not today. Not now. “Her name is Kara,” Lena said brusquely. “And if you think I don’t know when someone is testing me, then clearly you’ve never researched my mother.”

Cat’s face was entirely unapologetic, but she did give Lena an almost impressed look. “I appreciate your intellect, but tell me, do you always fight her battles for her?”

Kara actually snorted back a laugh which slightly confused Lena but also amused her. “Not even a little bit,” Kara replied and Lena didn’t miss the hint of cockiness in her tone. Was it wrong that she liked that too?

“I owed her one,” Lena added, remembering their run-in with the jerk of a reporter a couple weeks ago. “Isn’t that what a healthy relationship is all about? Standing up for each other and having each other’s backs?”

Kara gave Lena one of those warm Kara smiles that made Lena’s heart flip-flop like a fish on land.

“Indeed,” Cat said curtly. “Well to be honest, I don’t entirely agree with what you two did—and Lena, you should really think about rewriting some of your company’s rules about office relationships as Lex was notoriously lax about such things—but anyone with eyes can see how in love you are with one another. As a CEO myself I can’t fully endorse what you’ve done, but you won’t find any slander op-eds about you two from CatCo. I wish you both happiness.”

Lena did her best to mask her surprise. “Thank you, Miss Grant.”

“Thank you,” Kara added.

They said polite goodbyes and made their way to Lena’s car where her driver awaited them. As soon as the door closed to the car, Lena released some tension in her body she didn’t realize she’d been carrying.

“Hey,” a soft voice cut into the fog of Lena’s stress. “Are you okay? That interview got pretty personal.”

Lena wanted to say she wasn’t even a little bit okay. She wanted to tell Kara that hearing her say the words “I love Lena Luthor” had been too much, too real, or perhaps not real enough. She hated the fact that Kara had said those words without meaning them.

“I’m fine,” she lied.

She kept up that lie all the way back to L-Corp and waited until she was alone in her office to quietly deal with all her roiling emotions—with a nice glass of whiskey on the rocks. She went out to her balcony and focused on the cool autumn air stinging her cheeks. It was all so terribly unfair. And yet it felt like just the sort of thing that would happen to her, and part of her believed she deserved it. She’d certainly broken a couple of hearts in her time; it was only cosmic justice that it happen to her, right?

“Lena?”

Lena started from Kara’s sudden appearance and the glass of whiskey slipped from her fingers, breaking when it hit the balcony floor.

“Oh my gosh I’m so sorry!” Kara gushed, rushing forward and bent to pick up the broken glass.

“It’s fine, Kara, let me,” Lena said, kneeling as well. In her flustered state she of course cut her finger as soon as she tried to pick up a piece. “ _Fuck!_ ” she cursed under her breath.

Warm, soft hands suddenly closed around hers and helped her to her feet, dabbing the blood from the cut with a paper towel (which, when had Kara gotten a paper towel. . .?)

“Let me. I don’t cut very easily,” Kara said, applying gentle pressure to the small wound.

Lena glanced up only to realize Kara was standing entirely closer than she was prepared to stand in relation to her assistant. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of Kara this close. Her eyes were hooded and smoky and looking at her and _fuck_ if it wasn’t the sexiest sight Lena had ever seen in her life. Was Kara doing this on purpose for _fuck’s_ sake??

Lena wasn’t sure if the next part was her imagination or not but suddenly Kara Danvers’ lips were pressed against her own in a kiss that stole Lena’s ability to breathe. It was firm and desperate yet somehow gentle in its boldness. And then it ended as quickly as it began, leaving Lena breathless and trembling in its wake.

“I-I’m sorry,” Kara backpedaled, “I should have asked, I’m so—”

Lena surged forward, every fiber of her being clawing with the need to claim those lips again. She felt as though Kara had cast a spell on her and she was hopeless to resist. She might have felt conflicted about that last part if every part of her weren’t currently drowning in those strong arms that closed around her waist. And _god_ Kara’s lips were like velvet and mercury, soft and smooth and entirely too kissable. Lena was overwhelmed and completely unprepared for the powerful swell of emotions flowing through her like a torrent of fire.

Somehow she managed to pull back from Kara’s lips, though mostly from desperate need of air. “Jesus, Kara,” she gasped, her breath sounding ragged in her own ears as she clutched Kara’s shoulders.

Kara pressed her forehead against Lena’s. “Ditto,” Kara laughed weakly, her voice delightfully ragged as well.

“What are we doing? I mean as if our situation isn’t already messy enough,” Lena tried to reason, far more with herself than Kara.

The look Kara gave Lena nearly made her whimper. She’d never had anyone look at her with such unbridled tenderness and warmth and it was as incredible as it was terrifying. People just didn’t go around so openly displaying such affection (especially to a Luthor) and Lena had no idea what to do with it. Part of her wanted to drown in it. But the other part of her was afraid to allow herself this. What if she did? She could only imagine how easy it would be to let Kara in, to open her heart to her only to have Kara realize she was far too good for Lena and leave her.

“Can I take you to dinner? Not a work dinner. I mean like just a you and me dinner?” Kara asked, that _smile_ of hers still on her entirely too beautiful face.

Lena was having a hard time collecting her thoughts. She’d never been affected by anyone like this and she wasn’t used to it. She was used to being the one in control, the temptress, the flirt. Kara hadn’t lured her in with temptation or flirting, however. She’d overwhelmed Lena with so much love she couldn’t have resisted if she tried.

“You mean like a date?” Lena asked, her voice still sounding breathless, much to her embarrassment.

“Yeah, that,” Kara laughed softly. “Anywhere you want. Or if you like surprises I can pick. Either way, I just really want to date you, Lena.”

In the next several seconds that followed, Lena did a lot of justifying her actions. Call it the hormones currently flowing through her, or from apparently having lost all willpower from having just been thoroughly kissed by Kara.

“I’d like that,” she replied against her better judgment.

“Tonight? Eight o’clock?” Kara asked.

“Only if I can kiss you again,” Lena said, surprising herself with her own brazenness.

The smokiness returned to Kara’s eyes in an instant, which did little to calm Lena’s hormones currently running amok. “Deal,” Kara replied just in time for Lena to claim Kara’s lips again.

Lena knew some drugs that could be addictive from just one use. She’d never gone near them because she was far too much of a control freak to hand her control over to some substance. She also knew she would have to put Kara’s lips on that list, because now that she had a taste for them, she had absolutely no idea how she was going to stop.

She had to stop, of course. They were still at work and there were reputations to consider and holy _shit_ was she seriously kissing Kara? Jesus, had she no fucking resolve whatsoever??

Lena gripped Kara’s shoulders and used them to pull herself free from Kara’s lips, her whole body quaking in the wake of the devastation.

“Ground rules,” she gasped out, utilizing every ounce of her will not to do obscene things to Kara right then and there. “We really can’t kiss at work.”

Kara grinned and stepped back, taking Lena’s hands into her own. She brought Lena’s left hand to her lips and kissed the sapphire wedding ring still resting upon Lena’s ring finger. She held Lena’s gaze all the while which sent an electric shiver down her spine. “None? What about hands or cheeks? Or--?”

“Didn’t we just finish convincing HR and the Board we’re the epitome of professionalism?” Lena argued, though her resolve was crumbling by the second as her eyes drifted to Kara’s kiss-darkened lips.

Gentle fingers tipped Lena’s chin up, forcing her to look into those baby blue eyes that had far too much power over her.

“I’ll be the epitome of professionalism. Just as soon as I do this one more time,” Kara said softly.

The kiss that followed was different than the first three. This one was the essence of tenderness, and it was slow, methodical even, as Kara explored Lena’s lips. It lacked the shock and desperation of before, and yet it ignited a blaze within Lena that was far more devastating than anything she’d ever experienced in her life. She’d kissed people before. Lots of people, men and women, most of them exceptional kissers. But this? This was obsession inducing, this was addictive, this was. . . this simply would not do for a control-freak such as herself. And yet when Kara’s gentle but assertive tongue slipped between Lena’s parted lips and began soft, erotic glides across Lena’s tongue, the brunette was helpless to stop a small groan from bubbling up in her throat. She felt weak, dizzy, drunk even. What was happening to her? She might hate how much this was affecting her if she didn’t love it so fucking much.

Suddenly something made a screeching noise like a bomb threat alarm and Lena jerked away from Kara, the spell broken.

“Oh my gosh, I’m sorry,” Kara said, scooping her tablet off the ground. She silenced the tablet and pushed her glasses up awkwardly. “I told security to alert me if your mother ever showed up, and that’s the alert I set up for it.”

“Oh god, Lillian’s here?” Lena asked, the incredibly pleasant arousal she’d been experiencing gone in an instant.

Kara scooped the broken glass off the floor. “I’ll get rid of her, don’t worry,” Kara said and bustled to the balcony door.

“Kara.”

The blonde stopped, her hand on the door handle. “Hmm?”

“You should probably reapply your lipstick,” Lena said, unable to contain an amused grin.

Kara’s eyes widened. “Right.”

She watched Kara leave then straightened herself out as she re-entered her office. She’d never been more grateful nor angrier at Lillian’s unannounced arrival. On the one hand, that kiss had been driving her out of her goddamned mind. On the other hand. . . Jesus, that _kiss_.

She shoved such thoughts down, her head much clearer now that Kara was safely on the _other_ side of the door. She wiped off what remained of her lipstick and quickly reapplied it, then crossed to the door. When she opened it, she saw Lillian being physically blocked by Kara from entering Lena’s office.

“Lena has made it quite clear she doesn’t want to see you, Mrs. Luthor,” Kara said, folding her arms and glowering at the slightly shorter woman.

“And who are you, her new puppy? Run along now,” Lillian said, her eyes oozing superiority that made Lena’s blood boil.

She was about to come to Kara’s rescue when the blonde lifted her chin proudly, arrogantly even, and said, “I’m her _wife_.”

Both Luthors froze for very different reasons. Surprise flashed across Lillian’s face, but it was quickly replaced by iron and ice. “So you’re the new plaything.”

“Enough, Lillian. Kara, it’s okay,” Lena said, though her stomach was doing her level best to make her feel violently ill.

“Are you sure? Because I don’t mind—” Kara started.

“It’s okay. Let her through,” Lena said.

One of Lillian’s eyebrows rose as she stepped around Kara, and Lena didn’t miss the incredibly disapproving look she gave Kara which only succeeded in fueling Lena’s ire. As soon as Lena’s office door clicked shut, Lillian rounded on Lena.

“I knew you were never up to the Luthor standard, but my god, Lena, you married the _help_? Have you completely lost your mind?” Lillian asked, her voice dangerously soft, and her tone colder than liquid nitrogen.

Fortunately Lena had grown immune to such tactics. “Disappointed, mother?” Lena said, a smirk working its way to her lips. Now that she thought about it, it was kind of funny, if only to stick it to Lillian.

“And what will you do when she decides to go after the Luthor fortune? Will you just step aside and offer her the keys to the kingdom?” Lillian demanded.

“Why not? It’s all blood money anyway. It would be an effective way of laundering it all,” Lena retorted, folding her arms.

Lillian’s eyes narrowed. “I heard rumors that you had eloped, but I didn’t want to believe it. I just couldn’t believe you could ever be so incredibly foolish.”

“Then it looks like you don’t know me at all,” Lena shot back. “You’ve said your piece and met my wife. Now leave and don’t come back.”

Lillian’s cold eyes studied Lena for a moment. “You’ll regret this, Lena. But don’t expect me to bail you out when that little gold-digging whore takes you for every penny you have.”

“Get _out_!” Lena all but shouted, surprising herself with her own ferocity, though she immediately regretted it. She’d just displayed her hand, and oh how easy it was for Lillian to get her to do that. Apparently Kara was a weak point in her defenses, and she knew Lillian would exploit that as much and as often as possible.

“I see,” Lillian replied, triumph gleaming in her eyes. She turned and left, and as soon as the door closed again, Lena slumped in her chair with a soft curse.

Lillian’s visit had made her realize two things. First, Kara had already become a weakness, a liability, and therefore she had to end whatever was happening between them. And two, she was in a way grateful Lillian had stopped by. She felt more in control of her emotions (and hormones), which would make telling Kara easier. Then again, knowing that reaction was exactly what Lillian wanted had every fiber of her being rebelling against the thought.

She decided she could at least still go to dinner with Kara. She owed her assistant that much. Yes. She would just calmly and coolly tell Kara to simply keep things professional and that they couldn’t act on any confusing feelings the whole marriage business might be evoking. Simple.

Right. . .?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Lena. Just can't handle all the feels!


	7. The Heart of an Artist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to preface this chapter with a reminder that I tend to write Kara on the more "super" end of the spectrum. She isn't just an alien Pippi Longstocking (I love you if you get that reference lol). She is an advanced, elite alien, and that's the way I prefer to write her. Also I apologize for NOTHING for the fluff you're about to read.

It took Lena approximately two and a half hours to get ready for dinner with Kara (which she refused to call a date). If she was being completely honest, it actually took her half an hour to get ready and two hours to decide what the hell to wear. Since she’d decided to let Kara surprise her, she had no idea what to wear, and Kara’s only cryptic hint was to tell her to dress casual. Lena’s wardrobe was not casual. The only “casual” things she owned were a couple of alumni hoodies from university that she only ever wore at home and some workout clothes. In the end, she straightened her hair, dug out a pair of jeans, and found a sexy dark blue halter top to wear. It was casual enough without looking like she put in _too_ much effort. She had just finished putting on her jacket when she heard a soft knock on her apartment door. She glanced at the clock on her nightstand and saw that it was eight o’clock sharp and grinned. Kara was punctual as always.

She then wiped the grin off her face and sternly reminded herself that this was a business dinner and that she was going to end things and be a professional etc., etc.

She strode to the front door and pulled it open, but as soon as her eyes fell upon Kara Danvers, still wearing that jade wedding band, nearly all her resolve crumbled (which, why the _hell_ did this always seem to happen whenever there weren’t doors or walls between them?!). Kara had worn jeans as well with a sleeveless red hoodie, and although her attire was simple and informal, it was no less beautiful or devastating. Damn it, couldn’t Kara be less wonderful?? It would make this mess so much easier, goddamnit.

“Well hello, miss punctual,” Lena said, a wide smile spreading across her lips. “Anything I should bring for our mystery dinner?”

“Just your beautiful self,” Kara replied with a warm smile of her own and held out her hand.

Lena found herself reaching for it before she could stop herself, and their fingers laced together as they walked down the hall towards the elevator.

“Do I get any hints as to where we’re going?” Lena asked as the elevator door slid closed.

Kara gave her a cheery smile. “Nope.”

Lena wanted very much to kiss that smile, but fortunately her resolve was much stronger than when they were on the balcony earlier. She’d agreed with herself she would allow herself just this one dinner, then she would gently break it to Kara at the end of dinner that they couldn’t be together. She realized in that moment she really did sound like an addict, but whatever she was going on this date, damnit. Which she refused to call a date.

A fifteen minute cab ride later to an abandoned part of town had Lena second guessing everything and wondering where the hell Kara was taking her. The taxi came to a stop outside what looked like an abandoned warehouse. “You sure this is the right address?” the taxi driver asked, voicing the question on Lena’s mind.

“It is, thank you,” Kara said with a chipper smile and handed him a generous tip.

Though Lena was quite unsure about where the hell they were, she still felt so safe with Kara, she somehow knew she wasn’t in any danger despite the shady-as-fuck surroundings. Still, as the taxi drove off, she couldn’t help feel a little wary.

“I’m sorry, I’m sure this all seems very weird,” Kara said, leading Lena to a side door of the warehouse. “But this will all make sense in a second.”

Lena sure hoped so, because right now it looked like Kara was leading her into a creepy abandoned warehouse. Maybe she’d set up an elaborate escape room for their date that wasn’t a date??

As Lena stepped inside and Kara flipped on a couple of light switches, she realized she could not have been more wrong. As the lights came up, her eyes lifted to a sight that stole her breath away. No. More than that. It stole her whole heart, mind, and soul away.

For when she gazed up to the walls and ceiling of the emptied warehouse, she was looking upon what she could only describe or compare to was the Sistine Chapel. Incredible, wondrous, other-worldly paintings covered most of the ceiling and walls, images of fantastic people and events for which she had no frame of reference because it didn’t even look like it was from Earth other than the humans painted in the images. Though it resembled the Sistine Chapel in its physical design, this one had a much different compositional flow to it, like a story built into each painting and they were all connected. As she studied each image in complete and utter awe, she realized it was a timeline of sorts, but of what, she had no idea yet.

Lena had no concept of how long she gazed at the art on the ceiling, pillars, and walls, but eventually realized she should say something.

“Did you do all this?” she asked for lack of knowing what else to ask first. She had so many questions, but she had to know that. Could Kara really be, on top of everything else, this _perfect_?

Despite how _insanely_ good the art was, Kara’s smile was humble, shy even. She pushed her glasses up and nibbled her lower lip. “Yeah,” she replied quietly.

“Oh god. . . Kara this is. . . this is incredible, this is. . . I mean my god, I knew you were an artist, but this planet hasn’t seen this level of artistry since Michelangelo. How did you even. . . what is all this? _How_ did you do all this?” Lena stammered out all at once, still completely overwhelmed by all the artistic beauty surrounding her. “And what is this place?”

Kara slipped her hand in Lena’s and guided her to the center of the warehouse where she had set up a table with candles, a bottle of champagne, and two wine glasses.

“This used to be a bomb factory, built during WWII. When I found it, I just wanted to transform it from something used to make such ugly things to something beautiful. The building doesn’t really belong to anyone. The city hasn’t condemned it because it’s architecturally sound, but apparently there are thousands of buildings in the US that the government owns but has no record of owning it so the buildings just sit in limbo, even though the government still pays the bills like electricity for the buildings. The federal government never sold this one after the war, but the records and deed were lost somewhere between the 40s and today. Anyway, I don’t know what will happen to the building, I just needed somewhere to make art and this was here and empty. If it’s reclaimed someday. . . well I suppose it’s reclaimed. Not too much I can do about that.”

Lena continued staring at the paintings, eventually realizing her cheeks were wet from tears. She’d always loved art. She’d seen the Sistine Chapel, spent days in the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. But this? This was Kara’s _heart_ she was witnessing in these beautiful images. And god. . . Kara’s heart was breathtaking. She could feel the love and passion radiating from the paintings like the warmth she always felt radiating from Kara’s warm smiles. Though for the first time she saw deep threads of pain and heartache, as deep as it was heart breaking. She’d grown so accustomed to Kara’s warm smiles that she’d begun to wonder if Kara had led a mercifully sheltered life and didn’t know the agonies of the world. She saw it quite clearly now, though, the profound loss and sadness woven into every brush stroke of every painting and it broke Lena’s heart in ways she didn’t know it could break.

Somehow, _somehow_ Lena pulled it together and composed herself. She did the only thing she could think to do because she was otherwise at a total loss for words. “Is this where you bring all the girls you want to date?” she teased.

Kara turned her sapphire eyes to gaze at Lena. “I’ve never brought anyone here, not even my sister or cousin.”

Lena was yet again overwhelmed. “But why? Why give me this honor when I have scarcely earned it and certainly don’t deserve it?”

So much love and tenderness filled Kara’s face it drew a swell of emotion in Lena’s heart. The blonde reached up and gently stroked Lena’s cheek with her thumb, that loving smile of hers on her lips. “Don’t you know?”

This time Lena couldn’t stop the emotion. Her throat closed up and she swallowed it down, battling against herself. “Kara. . . god, Kara you’re not going to make this easy, are you? How am I supposed to combat all _this_?” she asked, gesturing to Kara and the surrounding art.

“Then don’t fight it, Lena,” Kara said in nearly a whisper, drawing closer to the brunette. “If this is what you want, then take it.”

Lena shuddered in delight at the mere thought of taking what she wanted. And she wanted to take a _lot_. “You have no _idea_ how much I want this, Kara,” Lena managed, finding it difficult to form words with Kara standing so close. “But how could you possibly want me? I mean _fuck_ look at you, look at all this. You’re perfection incarnate, how could someone like you possibly ever want someone like me? I’m a _Luthor._ ”

“You think _I’m_ perfect? My god, Lena, have you ever looked in a mirror? But I’d be happy to go over all my flaws and my damage with you if you’d like,” Kara said with a soft smirk. “But if I really am as ‘perfect’ as you say, then it must be quite good for your ego that I do want you.”

Lena pondered this for a moment and realized that was true. It was insanely flattering that Kara had eyes for her at all. “You make a good argument,” Lena admitted with a soft smile.

“If you’re still in doubt, with your permission, I’d be happy to show you my feelings on the matter,” Kara said, her lips even closer now, so close Lena needed only lean forward a few precious inches to taste them again.

“I may need some convincing,” Lena replied, her breath catching in her throat in anticipation.

She didn’t have to wait long. No sooner had she finished speaking then Kara closed the distance between them, her lips brushing against Lena’s in a ghost of a kiss. It left her both longing for more and ignited a fire deep within her core. Her eyes fluttered shut and she surrendered to Kara as the blonde kissed her more fully. She pressed her body against Kara’s and wrapped her arms around her neck. Strong arms closed around Lena’s waist, eliciting a soft groan from her lips.

It started soft and gentle, a tentative exploration of lips and it was beautiful and sweet and quickly had Lena’s head swimming. But soon a force within her was driving her to more, more of Kara, more than kissing, more than embracing, just _more_. Their kiss deepened, Kara apparently picking up on Lena’s desire and matching it in kind. Their tongues entwined, feeding Lena’s arousal as Kara’s hands roamed up her back and sides. Fingertips dug into Lena’s skin and Kara tore away from the kiss only to burn a trail of kisses and soft bites down Lena’s neck. It set Lena aflame in all the right ways, but god help her if it was too sexy, too much, too perfect.

“Kara. . .!” she gasped out, though it sounded far more like a groan than she’d have liked.

Kara pulled back instantly, concern filling her flushed face. “Are you okay? I didn’t hurt you, did I?” Kara asked, her voice deliciously breathless.

Lena closed her eyes and tried to catch her breath. It took her a few moments to realize that last question was a little odd, but she had more important matters at hand. She wanted this so much it hurt, which made what she was about to do that much harder. “I’m okay,” she said, trying to get her breathing under control. “I just need. . . can we maybe just have dinner and talk?”

“Of course,” Kara said, her eyes and smile warm and reassuring. She guided Lena to the table and pulled one of the chairs out for her. “We can talk all night if you need. It’s Friday and there’s nowhere I’d rather be than with you.”

Of course Kara would be wonderful because why wouldn’t she be wonderful in this too? How was Kara even possible? How?

“Well maybe not _all_ night, but dinner would be wonderful,” Lena replied, sitting down on the offered chair, feeling much less flustered and more in control now that she wasn’t kissing Kara anymore.

Kara pulled the bottle of champagne from the bucket of ice and Lena realized it wasn’t champagne at all but sparkling cider. One of Lena’s eyebrows rose in amusement. “Sparkling cider?”

“Hey, the last time we had alcohol, we got married in Vegas. I’m playing it safe this time,” Kara said with a grin.

She then opened a cooler nearby in which she had apparently been keeping their dinner hot and pulled out two dishes of Indian chicken makhani. The aroma filled the air, invoking happy memories of when Lena had vacationed in India and had seen the Taj Mahal. She remembered telling Kara about her trip once and mentioning that chicken makhani was one of her all-time favorite dishes. The fact that Kara had remembered only succeeded in making her fall for her assistant even more.

When she took her first bite, she could swear it tasted just like a street food vendor’s straight from India. She couldn’t stop a small groan of pleasure from bubbling up. “My god, Kara, where did you get this? I didn’t even know National City had Indian restaurants this good.”

Kara gave her a mysterious smile. “I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to reveal my sources.”

Dinner was wonderful and perfect and Lena was so smitten with Kara it was really just embarrassing at this point. She still had many questions about the paintings and how the hell Kara did it all, but she held off in favor of asking Kara about her adoptive family, her hobbies, and her interests. Apparently aside from being a devastatingly amazing artist, Kara was also in the habit of learning a new language fluently every year and enjoyed a bit of casual astronomy.

“This was wonderful, _thank_ you, Kara,” Lena said, taking a sip of the sparkling cider.

Kara leaned forward and rested her hand over Lena’s. “I’d happily do this for you every night if you’ll let me.”

Lena’s heart once again flip-flopped at the idea of spending every night with Kara, but her Luthor strength won that battle and she pulled away from Kara’s hand. “Kara. . . I . . . god, Kara you really aren’t making this easy. First of all, I’m still your _boss_ ; I’m in a position of power over you and I just don’t know what to do about that. And second, you don’t know Lillian like I do. Your _life_ could be in danger. To be honest, I don’t think it would be beneath her to try to harm you or send goons after to maybe even try to kill you just to prove a point to me, or to ‘prevent you from stealing the Luthor fortune.’ I can’t do that to you, I can’t put you in that kind of danger. If something happened to you, I would never forgive myself, Kara.”

“I think you’ll find I’m a _lot_ harder to kill than your average human,” Kara replied.

Lena’s brow furrowed. “What does that mean?”

Kara, for her part, looked entirely unconcerned with everything Lena had just said as she gazed at Lena with a studying look. “Did you mean what you said about aliens in that interview with Miss Grant?”

Lena blinked. “What does that have to—?”

“Did you?” Kara repeated. “Or did you just say it for the cameras?”

“I meant every word; why?” Lena asked.

“And um. . . how would you feel about dating an alien?” Kara asked.

Lena opened her mouth to reply before realizing what it was Kara was asking. Her eyes widened in disbelief. “Are. . . are you saying what I think you’re saying?” she managed.

Kara worried her lower lip, a soft blush taking residence in her cheeks. “What if I was?”

A million things went through Lena’s mind, clarity being at the forefront. Suddenly everything made soooo much more sense. Kara wasn’t human. No wonder she was way too good to be human—she motherfucking _wasn’t_.

“Honestly?” Lena said with a relieved laugh. “This is the best news I’ve heard in years. You’re an _alien_. Of course you are. You’re far too good to be human and my god, just look at this place. I have many follow up questions.”

Kara giggled, exhaling a breath she’d apparently been holding. “Really? It doesn’t . . . it doesn’t bother you that I’m not human?”

Lena pondered that for a moment, wanting to be completely honest with Kara. But upon thinking about it, she realized it didn’t matter to her at all. If anything, it made her even more attracted to Kara which was . . . well definitely unusual for a Luthor, but also interesting so whatever. “Not at all. Does it bother you that I’m human?”

Kara chuckled. “No. Our species are really not that different. I mean obviously,” Kara added, gesturing to herself with a lopsided grin.

“So if you’re an alien, what did you mean when you said you’re harder to kill than humans? And what is your race called? And what is your home planet called?” Lena asked all at once.

Kara’s demeanor became even more bashful which was adorable, if maybe a little confusing. “I’m. . . Kryptonian,” Kara all but mumbled, rose deepening in her cheeks as she fiddled with her wedding ring, avoiding eye contact.

Lena was silent for several long moments as she stared at Kara. And then a few seconds more. And perhaps a few seconds after that.

“You’re _Supergirl_?!?!” she burst out.

“I’m Kara Zor-El,” Kara said argumentatively. “But. . . yes. That too.”

Lena sat back in her chair, extremely grateful she was sitting. So many things suddenly made sense, especially the excessive bathroom breaks, the coffee somehow always being hot, the speed with which Kara was able to accomplish impossible tasks. She then realized the multitude of what Kara had just told her. “But this is such a big secret. Why are you trusting me with this?”

“Because you’re a good person and I know more than anything, you just want to help the world. It’s just one of the many reasons I’m. . . it’s why I have feelings for you, Lena,” Kara faltered, looking away.

“I’d ask you to prove you’re Supergirl, but it seems like a weird thing to lie about,” Lena said with an overwhelmed laugh.

To her surprise, Kara took off her glasses and rose from the table, and a second later she lifted off the ground, floating a few feet above it with an unexpectedly cocky grin on her face. Lena found a smile working its way to her own lips. So Kara did have a flaw _finally_. Lena had missed it before, but she saw it now. She had just a hint of cockiness in there. Seeing a flaw for the first time did things to Lena. It thrilled her beyond measure, it made Kara feel more attainable somehow (despite the fact that she’d just revealed she was motherfucking _Supergirl_ ), and it was that thought, she supposed, that spurred her off her chair. She stood and grabbed a fistful of Kara’s shirt, pulling her back to the ground and fused their lips with bruising force.

Despite the initial forcefulness of the kiss, this time Lena slowed and surrendered to it completely, allowing herself, for the first time, to genuinely entertain the possibility of being with Kara. Knowing Kara was safe from Lillian (and “quid pro quo” for that matter) was making it difficult to keep up this fight. The kiss heated to a blaze, and it wasn’t long before they were breathless and groaning softly as their tongues entangled. When Lena bit Kara’s lower lip, she suddenly found herself pinned up against a nearby pillar, and holy _fuck_ it did things to Lena’s body to be pinned by all the incredible power of Supergirl. Kara tore away from Lena’s lips to burn a trail of kisses along her jaw and neck, biting Lena gently but just hard enough to cause a fire to take up residence between her legs. When Kara’s knee slid up between Lena’s thighs, despite everything in her entire body screaming at her to let this happen, to let Kara Danvers fuck her until she screamed herself hoarse and fell unconscious, something stronger within her guided her hand to Kara’s chest and gently pushed her back. She hated herself for it, but she was committed now, damnit all to hell.

She took a moment to catch her breath before looking into the eyes of Supergirl, still scarcely believing this wonderful Kryptonian could really want her. A Luthor and a Super? The idea was nearly laughable if she hadn’t just spent the last several minutes making out with that very Super.

“Kara,” she managed, amazed she could form words. “Can we. . . I’m not. . .” Okay apparently she couldn’t form words.

“I’m sorry,” Kara said, pulling back instantly, her face a mask of concern. “Are you okay? Was this too fast?”

“No—yes, I just. . .” Lena tried again but couldn’t quite bring herself to say what she needed to say. She felt like an ass, considering she’d been the one to initiate this.

Seeming to sense Lena’s doubts, Kara placed a gentle kiss on Lena’s cheek. “Hey,” she said softly, “it’s okay, Lena. If you’re not ready, or you don’t want. . . if you don’t want to be with me like that because of Supergirl.”

The idea that Supergirl could be what stood between her and Kara was so far from the truth she nearly laughed out of sheer frustration with herself. “Oh god, _Kara_. No. Supergirl isn’t the problem. Are you kidding? _I’m_ the problem here, not you.”

Confused concern rippled through Kara’s lovely face. “What do you mean?”

“I need _time_ , Kara,” Lena forced the words out, exhaling a shuddering breath of regret. “I want this— _fuck_ if only you knew how much I want you to fly me home and claim every inch of me right now—I just. . . this is too good to screw up, _you’re_ too good for me to risk losing because I rushed into something I wasn’t ready for. And this isn’t because you’re an alien or Supergirl. This is because I _want_ this, Kara. More than I’ve ever wanted anything, god help me.”

Kara gave her a very pleased smile at that last part. “So you need to go slow, in other words?”

“If that’s. . . yes. If you don’t want that I understand,” she said, already feeling herself trying to steel to inevitable rejection. “We can just go back—”

“Lena,” Kara gently interjected, “it’s okay. Despite the fact that I’m Supergirl, I’m scared too. I want to do this right, and I think going slow is a really wise, good idea. And whenever you’re ready to cross that bridge, I’m here.”

“Just like that?” Lena asked, hardly able to believe her ears. Could Kara really be that wonderful on top of everything else?

“Just like that. I want you, Lena, but some things are worth waiting for,” Kara replied, her eyes smoky, but her smile was warm and reassuring.

“Mmm sweet talker,” Lena purred, leaning forward and placed a soft kiss on Kara’s lips.

When she pulled back, Kara was smiling from ear to ear. “Does this mean kissing is still on the table?”

“I said I wasn’t ready for sex yet. I didn’t say I was a saint,” Lena said with a playful smirk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How long do you suppose Lena can keep to that "going slow" with Kara around? X3


	8. The Best Laid Plans. . .

It was safe to say Kara had one of the most amazing weekends of her life. Her dinner date with Lena ended up being a whole weekend-long date. They talked so long into the night at the warehouse that they fell asleep on a large couch Kara had bought while she was still painting it. In the morning they had gone to a little breakfast diner, then wandered the city together. Then in the evening they repeated it again because Lena asked to go back to the warehouse to ask more questions and look more closely at all the paintings. Kara had obliged, flying her up closer so she could better see the paintings on the ceiling and upper walls, and she quickly learned she really liked holding Lena in her arms as she flew.

Though it was now Wednesday evening and work had been back to the usual—both of them acting professional as per Lena’s request to not kiss at work—Kara was still happier than she could ever remember being as she sat on her couch trying (and failing) to read “ _War and Peace”_ in Russian. They had another date this Friday planned, this time Lena’s choice, which was to see a musical touring the country and was in National City for the week.

There was suddenly a loud knock on her door and she remembered only after looking through the door with X-ray vision that she had agreed to host this week’s game night. She crossed to the door and opened it to the smiling faces of Alex and her girlfriend Maggie, Winn, and J’onn.

“What, did you all carpool or something?” Kara asked, stepping aside to allow them in.

“Well not all of us can fly and some of us believe in protecting the environment,” Maggie answered, pursing her lips as she pushed past Kara.

“Vegan, has a hybrid car, loves cats, god Maggie, you’re such a lesbian,” Kara teased as she closed the door behind them.

“I’m the lesbian? You literally married your girlfriend after one date in Vegas,” Maggie shot back with a smirk.

Kara felt herself turn beet red. “She’s not my girlfriend,” she muttered with a pout and hurried to the kitchen.

“You’re right, she’s not your girlfriend. She’s your wife,” Maggie said, her smirk only deepening.

Kara stuck her tongue out at Maggie then turned to Alex. “Can I talk to you for a second?” she asked.

“Sure,” Alex said, following Kara into her bedroom with a confused look.

Once alone, Kara bounced excitedly on her heels with a huge smile. “Lena and I kissed. Well, I kissed her. And then she kissed me back. And then we kissed a bunch,” Kara blurted out all at once, unable to contain her enthusiasm.

A wide, amused smile overtook Alex’s face. “Congratulations.”

“Also I told her I’m Supergirl and we’re taking things slow but she said she wants me so we can go however slow she wants, I’m just so happy!” Kara babbled excitedly.

Alex’s smile faltered ever so slightly. “You told her you’re Supergirl?”

“Yeah, she was really worried about Lillian trying to kill me because her mother is psycho, and she was worried about ‘quid pro quo’ and really she just stresses a lot so I put her worries to rest. I feel liberated! I don’t have to keep myself a secret from her; Alex, I’m just so happy!” Kara gushed.

Alex chuckled. “I can see that. Do you trust her?”

“I wouldn’t have told her if I didn’t,” Kara replied. “And no, I didn’t just tell her because I’m in love with her. I told her because the only way this is going to work is if we’re honest with each other. I _want_ this, Alex. More than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.”

“I’m happy for you,” Alex reassured, giving Kara warm hug. When she pulled back, she was wearing a smirk. “So how was it?”

Kara blinked. “How was what?”

“Making out with a Luthor?” Alex teased.

Kara felt herself flush scarlet. “Amazing!” she muttered as she hurried out of the bedroom.

Alex continued her mild teasing for some time before everyone settled in the living room with snacks and drinks. They were in the middle of a very aggressive game of Uno when there was suddenly a soft knock on the door. No one besides Kara heard it, they were so wrapped up in the game, but Kara ignored them in favor of answering it. She didn’t X-ray the door before answering, so she was understandably shocked by the person standing on the other side of it when she opened it.

“Lena!” she exclaimed in surprise.

In the next few microseconds that followed, she processed all possible outcomes of her friends (but especially the terrible duo of Maggie and Alex) seeing Lena and realized there would be way more shit-giving than she wanted to subject Lena to. So she did the only thing she could think to do which was to rush into the hall and slam the door behind her. She pressed her back against the door and awkwardly pushed up her glasses.

“W-what are you doing here?” she asked lamely.

Lena looked slightly startled by Kara’s odd reaction and took a step back. “I-I’m sorry, is this a bad time? I shouldn’t have come, I’m—”

“It’s okay!” Kara said, reaching for Lena’s hand. “I just wasn’t expecting you. You’re welcome to join us if you’d like. Wednesday nights are game nights. I. . . I didn’t invite you because you said you wanted to take things slow and I wasn’t sure you were ready to meet my friends and sister yet.”

“I don’t want to intrude, it’s okay,” Lena said, a soft blush rising in her cheeks. She just looked so pretty with her hair down and falling about her shoulders, a black pencil skirt visible beneath her red jacket and Kara was just able to stop a sigh of longing from escaping her lips. She would wait for Lena into infinity, but she really did love the idea of putting her face up under that beautiful skirt. She then severely chided herself for such thoughts. “I really shouldn’t have come, I’m sorry.”

“Why _did_ you come?” Kara asked. Now that she thought about it, she loved the fact that Lena felt comfortable enough with her to drop by unannounced, but it was definitely unexpected.

Lena’s blush deepened and she worried her lower lip. “I. . . I really wanted to see you so I could do something.”

Kara grinned and gave Lena an encouraging look. “Oh? And what was it you wanted to do?”

Lena seemed to come to some sort of resolution because she looked up and met Kara’s gaze, her face determined. She then surged forward and Kara suddenly found herself quite pinned against her door and was being quite kissed by Lena Luthor. Despite this being a decidedly unexpected turn of events, Kara was happy to allow Lena to continue whatever she had planned.

What she had planned was apparently some very dirty tonguing in Kara’s apartment complex hallway. A small groan of enjoyment escaped Kara’s throat as Lena pressed her body flush with Kara’s, slender hands gliding up Kara’s waist as their heated kiss deepened. When Lena boldly brushed her thumbs along the sides of Kara’s breasts, Kara couldn’t stop a small whimper of delighted surprise. Kara wasn’t sure if she would classify it as “taking it slow,” but she was having a hard time arguing Lena’s logic.

She had just resolved to pull back and ask Lena just _what_ it was she had planned to do if Kara didn’t have company (and the possibilities were so thrilling she was extremely tempted to kick everyone out of her apartment), when she heard footsteps approach from the inside of her apartment. She had just enough time to push herself off the door and somehow break away from the hottest kiss of her life before the door opened. Kara whirled to find herself looking at the very amused face of Alex.

“So you going to let your wife in, or are you just going to keep necking in the hallway?” she smirked.

Kara was quite sure she must have looked quite the sight, breathless and flushed (and aroused as heck), but at least Lena wasn’t wearing lipstick. Kara pushed up her glasses. “L-Lena, this is my sister Alex. Alex, Lena Luthor.”

Alex held out her hand with a warm smile. “Lovely to meet you. Kara’s told me so much about you.”

“All good things, I hope,” Lena replied, accepting the offered hand with an equally warm smile.

Alex pulled her inside and gave her a huge, familial hug, much to Kara’s surprise. “Welcome to the Danvers’ family. Come in, find a drink, and join us in a very aggressive version of Uno. Hope you like games, because you married a gamer. She sucks, but she’s earnest.”

Kara glared at Alex as Lena allowed herself to be guided in.

“Hey, we finally get to meet Kara’s wife!” Winn exclaimed, waving enthusiastically at Lena.

Kara had an internal panic at _that_ greeting and looked at Lena, only praying to Rao she wouldn’t run away or panic. Fortunately, she seemed to sense Winn meant well and took it in stride. Kara introduced Lena to everyone and they made room for her and Kara on the couch. Kara sat protectively next to Lena, and she very much enjoyed it when Lena scooted close to her so the sides of their thighs were touching.

J’onn dealt Lena in and gave her a fatherly smile. “I must say, Miss Luthor, I’ve never seen Kara happier since she started working for you. If you’re good in Kara’s book, then you’re good in mine,” he said.

“Aaw look at this big ol’ teddy bear,” Winn teased. “Also, draw four, J’onn,” he added with a smirk as he laid the wild card on the play pile.

Despite Kara being anxious that her friends would give them endless crap about their current marriage predicament, they surprised her by being nothing but warm and welcoming with Lena. Kara didn’t know if it was because they sensed how fragile her relationship with Lena was at the moment, or if (and this was far more likely) they were playing nice because they were good friends. Either way, she was grateful. After a few more rounds of Uno, they decided to play Settlers of Catan. Lena proved after two games that she was apparently quite adept at settling Catan by aggressively settling all wheat tiles.

“So that’s the secret to being a billionaire?” Maggie said with an amused twinkle in her eyes. “By hoarding wheat?”

“It’s all a ruse. The real secret is in the sheep,” Lena replied with a playful wink.

Kara found herself gazing at Lena with a (very probably) dopey smile all over her face (and definitely not for the first time). She may have gone on gazing like this indefinitely, but suddenly her keen Kryptonian hearing heard a strange noise outside her window. She might have ignored it if she weren’t four stories up. She glanced out the window to see three large drones hovering roughly twenty feet from the glass. At first she thought they might have been some kind of media drones, but then she saw the barrels of machine guns on each one.

Just as the barrels of the machine guns started spinning to spray bullets, Kara launched into super speed. The world around her froze as she calculated all possible outcomes of this nightmarish scenario. She knew she couldn’t just block the bullets or destroy the drones with laser vision because the drones were equipped with sensors and cameras. She would have to do this the hard way. Forcing herself to keep her movements humanly slow, she dropped out of super speed.

“Everyone get down!” she bellowed. She then turned and grabbed Lena with one arm and the back of the couch with the other. She lurched forward, taking Lena and the couch with her, successfully using it as a shield from the spray of bullets that began tearing up her apartment.

From there chaos broke out. Three highly trained DEO agents all pulled out their guns, rolled to cover, and returned fire. Though slightly less refined, Maggie did the same. Kara then scooped Lena up bridal style in her arms and ran to the bathroom where there were no windows. As soon as they were safely in the room, Kara set Lena down and was about to change into her Supergirl uniform when Lena caught her wrist.

“Wait! Those drones had sensors. Even in super speed they might still pick up your movement. I have a better idea,” Lena said and pulled her phone from her pocket. “I caught a glimpse of the model of those drones,” she continued, her fingers flying over her phone screen. “They’re Luthor tech. That means they’ll have a kill code wired in because Luthors are control freaks. There!”

The gunfire stopped abruptly and Kara rushed back out. “Is everyone okay?” she asked, looking frantically around her destroyed apartment.

J’onn and Winn had taken up shelter behind the brick in between her two large living room windows, and Alex and Maggie were both behind the wall next to the window on the far right. All four of them had their guns trained on the ground below to the now shut down drones. Alex and Maggie both pulled out their phones and called in the attack to their respective offices.

“What the hell was that? And why did they just drop out of the sky like that?” J’onn asked, peering out the window to the ground below.

“And why the hell were they trying to kill us?” Winn demanded.

Lena emerged from the bathroom, very much looking like the image the Luthor name evoked—cold with a glint of vengeful wrath in her eyes. “I think I know.”

* * *

It was a long night. Police came. Ambulances came. Firetrucks came. Media inevitably showed up and the only thing they could focus on was the fact that Kara and Lena weren’t living together yet (to which Lena had irritably answered because they simply hadn’t had the time to move in together yet, since they had just gotten married. Lena really did hate the media). Fortunately, no one had to be taken to the hospital, but that didn’t make Lena feel any less guilty. She had been completely honest with the police when they got her statement. She told them she absolutely believed her mother—her own fucking mother—had ordered the attack. It wasn’t the fact that Lillian had done something so evil that even bothered Lena; she couldn’t exactly say she was surprised. It was the fact that she felt responsible. Lillian had done this, tried to _kill_ Kara, to get to Lena and she had no idea how she could forgive herself for this.

Lena pulled the blanket an EMT had given her more tightly around her shoulders. The adrenaline rush that had gotten her through the night thus far was wearing off, and she leaned heavily against the side of the ambulance, fighting the exhaustion trying to lull her to sleep.

“Hey,” a gentle voice cut through the fog of her roiling thoughts. “Are you okay?”

She looked up and saw Kara, her face filled with concern and tenderness. Lena wanted to cry. She wanted to scream in rage and frustration and wrath, but she swallowed it down. “I’m so sorry, Kara. I’m just so _fucking_ sorry.”

“Hey, this wasn’t your fault, Lena,” Kara said and sat next to Lena in the back of the ambulance. She wrapped her strong arms around Lena’s shoulders and kissed her temple. “Don’t ever blame yourself for Lillian’s actions. _She_ did this and she’ll soon have her day of reckoning, but this _was not_ your fault.”

Lena rubbed her face and exhaled a heavy sigh. “At least let me give you a place to stay until the damage is repaired. I’ll pay for all of it. I-if you don’t want to stay with me I can get you a really nice hotel,” she back-pedaled.

Kara merely grinned. “I mean we are married and I’m sure all these reporters will be expecting us to go home together.”

Lena chuckled weakly. “True enough.”

It wasn’t until they were in the elevator of Lena’s apartment complex that Lena realized the sheer craziness of the night’s events. “Why are all your friends gun-wielding ninjas?” she blurted out.

“Oh right,” Kara said, fidgeting with the rail in the elevator. “I um. . . well Supergirl, works with a secret government agency that deals with alien criminals. They’re all agents. Except Maggie; she’s NCPD.”

“Oh that makes much more sense. I was wondering how they were all so level-headed through all that,” Lena said.

“So were you,” Kara said with a gently teasing smile. “What’s your excuse?”

Lena exhaled a small laugh. “I’m a Luthor.”

“That tracks,” Kara laughed as the elevator door slid open.

The two of them entered Lena’s apartment, and after setting down purses and Kara’s overnight bag, they fell into an evening routine as if they’d done this countless times before. They moved around and with each other without colliding or getting in each other’s way, anticipating the other’s movements as they brushed their teeth, cleaned their faces, and got into their pajamas. It wasn’t until both of them climbed into Lena’s bed that she realized she hadn’t actually done this with Kara before. Kara seemed to realize it at the same moment too.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” Kara exclaimed, leaping out of Lena’s bed like a scared bunny. “I must be really tired; it’s been a really long night. I’m sorry! I’ll just go sleep on the couch.”

“Wait,” Lena said, grabbing Kara’s wrist. “Stay?”

Kara paused. “Oh. A-are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” Lena replied with a gentle smile. “Despite knowing you’re Supergirl, what happened tonight could have gone so much worse. And. . . well let’s just say it would be easier not to spiral if I fell asleep next to a strong Kryptonian.”

Kara rewarded her with a beaming smile. “Oh, well when you put it that way, it’s practically a public service that I sleep in here tonight.”

Lena hummed a low chuckle as Kara took off her glasses and slid into the bed. “Practically,” Lena agreed. She marveled, not for the first time, how beautiful Kara’s eyes were when not hiding behind her thick glasses. When she saw hesitance lurking beneath the surface, Lena reassured her by flipping her lamp off and scooting to the center of the bed and wrapped herself around Kara.

“I get to sleep in your fancy bed _and_ get cuddles? It must be my lucky day,” Kara grinned, flipping off her bedside lamp as well. She settled under the covers and wrapped Lena in her arms, placing a soft kiss to Lena’s forehead.

Lena nuzzled her face into Kara’s neck with a soft hum of approval, though this was decidedly _not_ how she planned this evening to go. She had gone to Kara’s apartment with every intention of throwing “slow” straight out the window. She had planned on spending the night making love to Kara Danvers, so long as Kara would still have her. As it was now, she was far too exhausted and worried. She knew her mother well enough to know that tonight was a warning shot, which meant whatever was coming next would be worse. Much worse.

But at least tonight she could allow herself this. Tonight she could just fall asleep in Kara’s arms and let the world and all its problems melt away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor thirsty Lena! Girl just needs some Kara lovin'!


	9. A Lament for Krypton

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up for a bit of NSFW fluff. X3

Lena awoke the next morning to find herself completely cocooned in powerful Kryptonian arms. She wasn’t typically a cuddler, especially not little spoon, but holy sweet Jesus fuck if she wasn’t the happiest person in the world right then. Lena’s bladder seemed to believe happiness was overrated, however. She tried to carefully extricate herself from said strong Kryptonian arms and leg slung over her hips, but Kara, it would seem, was having none of it. Even a sleeping Kryptonian was an immovable object.

Lena tried again then giggled when Kara nuzzled into the back of her neck. “No,” Kara mumbled sleepily. “No escaping for you. You’re stuck forever.”

“If I promise to return after I go to the bathroom can I leave?” Lena reasoned.

A sleepy Kryptonian was apparently also an unreasonable thing. Kara rolled on top of Lena then pretended to snore loudly.

“Kara!” Lena squeaked, trying in vain to wriggle free between giggles.

Kara nuzzled into Lena’s cheek, sprinkling playful kisses on Lena’s face, eventually settling on her lips. Lena really didn’t dare start up a make-out session or she’d never escape to the bathroom, so she did the only thing she could think of to get the super off of her. She grabbed Kara’s face and licked it from her chin all the way to her forehead.

Kara shrieked and sprang away from Lena so quickly, the next thing Lena saw was Kara floating several feet above her, wiping frantically at her face. “Lena!” Kara whined, still trying to wipe her face clean.

“What? I have to go to the bathroom and you weren’t giving me many options,” Lena replied with a heavy smirk and slid out of the bed. “I stand by my actions,” she added over her shoulder as she closed the bathroom door.

She heard a bit of grumbling from the other side of the door and giggled unapologetically. A few minutes later after washing her hands and rinsing her face, she glanced at her reflection in the mirror and saw it was smiling back at her. She’d never seen herself smile like that. Her smile was wide, borderline dopey, and her green eyes were bright with happiness. It was such a ridiculous sight that she had to smother a laugh. She then rolled her eyes at herself. She fully recognized she was quite ridiculous, at least where Kara was concerned. After telling Kara she wanted to “go slow,” three days later she had shown up to Kara’s apartment uninvited with every intention of fucking Kara senseless. Or demanding Kara fuck her senseless. Either way, she had absolutely no honorable intentions last night.

And then Lillian went and attacked Kara.

Lena’s smile faltered. On the plus side, Kara was invincible and her friends were apparently all ninjas. Also, thanks to Lillian, she got to fall asleep in Kara’s arms, and Kara would be sleeping here for the next few weeks while the repairs and investigation were under way. But the hard reality was, Lillian had just tried to kill her own daughter’s wife. Lena’s stomach twisted angrily. She needed to start planning her next move and anticipating Lillian’s next move. If she knew Lillian, the next phase would be to attack Kara’s character, to try and publically humiliate her by digging up secrets of her past and try to use that as leverage to blackmail Lena. Which. . . now that Lena knew Kara was Supergirl, this had the potential to get very ugly very fast. Lena could only imagine what Lillian would do with the information of knowing Kara was Supergirl. Nothing good.

A soft knock on the bathroom door startled Lena out of her spiral. “Lena? Are you okay?” Kara’s muffled voice said softly from the other side of the door.

“I’m fine. You can come in,” Lena replied, grabbing a towel to dry her face.

Kara opened the door, and a moment later Lena felt strong hands on her shoulders that began massaging deeply into her tense muscles. Lena’s head fell back with an unintended groan of pleasure.

“God that feels good,” she breathed, eyes fluttering shut as Kara’s hands continued working magic on her tight muscles.

“Mmm good,” Kara purred, kissing Lena’s cheek. “Rao, Lena, do you know how sexy you are?”

Lena’s heartrate and breath quickened in an instant, as though Kara’s words were that of some powerful enchantment which ensnared her in Kara’s loving web. Was Kara a sorceress? Could Kryptonians cast spells? Because she'd felt enthralled by Kara from their first meeting, despite her best efforts to escape it. But with each soft kiss on her neck (and incredible deep tissue massage), Lena knew this was a war she couldn’t win.

Kara’s hands worked down her back in deep, slow circles, then to her sides and hips, each stroke purposeful, worshipful. When her hands massaged their way back up Lena’s sides, she found herself reaching for Kara’s hands and guided them around and upward until Kara’s fingertips brushed along the bottom of Lena’s breasts.

Kara gasped softly in surprise, and Lena could feel a ripple of tension in Kara’s body, though feeling all that wild power behind her only fueled Lena’s intoxicated state.

“Are you sure?” Kara asked in barely above a breathless whisper.

“Yes,” Lena managed, gasping when Kara accepted the consent by moving her hands further up still until they were covering Lena’s breasts.

Despite the raw power she felt in those beautiful hands, Kara was gentle, tender in her exploration of this new part of Lena’s body to which she’d been granted access. Lena lost herself in the exploratory touch, her fingertips digging into the counter to ground herself. The sound of Kara’s breath quickening from the contact made Lena’s head swim in delight and perhaps a soft edge of arrogance. She was making _Supergirl_ breathless with just her breasts. It was thrilling to imagine what she could do to Kara if her whole body were involved.

Kara’s hands slid down Lena’s sides only to slip under her Lena’s satin night shirt and glide back up, halting when her fingertips brushed the underside of her breasts again.

“May I?” she whispered, continuing to kiss Lena’s cheek and neck.

“Yes,” Lena breathed, arching into Kara’s fingers with a soft groan as her thumbs swept over stiffened peaks. Lena’s mind drifted to her intentions again last night, her state of heightened relaxation from her massage only feeding her desire and making her feel utterly and profoundly under Kara’s spell. She _almost_ felt embarrassed that she’d only held out three days, though as Kara’s hands continued to work their magic on her breasts with slow, sensual strokes, she could understand why. All her normal defenses that worked so well against literally everyone else on the planet had been all but tenderly and lovingly peeled away, leaving Lena torn between feeling vulnerable and exposed or wonderful and loved.

Kara seemed to sense Lena’s conflict, perhaps from the way her heartbeat quickened or the coil of tension that slithered up her spine, and lowered her hands to instead wrap them around Lena’s waist. She cocooned her once again in her strong arms, and never had Lena felt more safe, and not because of Kara’s powers. She’d never felt safe enough to tell a partner that she needed to go slow, or trusted that they would wait. On the same token, she’d never cared to wait because she always knew from the start all her other relationships were temporary, so why emotionally invest?

But Kara. . .

Kara was the emotional investment opportunity of a lifetime. A thousand lifetimes. Lena had only invested the barest minimum she dared invest and already she was seeing vast returns. Thinking in terms of investments also made her realize she kind of hated being a CEO. She was an inventor at heart, despite how good she was at making L-Corp money, it wasn’t what she wanted out of life. She wanted to be the next Nicola Tesla, with perhaps more sex than he had.

“Hungry? I can pick us up breakfast literally anywhere in the world,” Kara asked, resting her chin on Lena’s shoulder, giving her a soft smile in the mirror.

Despite being almost painfully aroused, Lena was grateful for Kara’s refocusing of their energy to something else. She turned in Kara’s arms and wrapped her arms around her neck, breathing in the wonderful aroma of Kara Danvers.

“How about you pick the place while I take a shower?” Lena said, leaning back to place a soft kiss on her lips.

“If you leave it to me, you may end up with waffles,” Kara said with a playful smile.

“I think I can live with that,” Lena replied with a small grin of her own.

After sharing one last lingering kiss, Kara departed to find them breakfast somewhere, and Lena retired to the shower. As the hot water cascaded down her body, all she could think about were Kara’s hands on her breasts, her body pressed against her back, the feel of her lips and tongue when they kissed.

Lena found her own hand reaching between her legs to her arousal which had not eased in the slightest since Kara’s departure. She leaned back against the cool shower wall, her head falling back as she gave her swollen arousal some much needed stimulation. Imagining Kara’s face in place of her hand pushed Lena over the edge in seconds with a stifled cry of pleasure. She almost felt guilty for fantasizing about Kara since they hadn’t crossed that bridge yet, but not enough to stop herself from transforming the fantasy into something even more visceral as she continued to pleasure herself. She indulged the fantasy of Kara pinning her face first against the shower wall, her naked body pressed against Lena’s back as she bit the back of Lena’s neck. Her eyes rolled shut as she imagined Kara’s fingers entering her from behind, the very thought penetrating right down to her soul and plummeting her into her second climax in moments. Her body convulsed wildly as she rode the waves of intense pleasure, biting her lower lip to stop herself from crying out Kara’s name.

She leaned heavily against the wall as she caught her breath, suddenly fighting back a wave of powerful emotion. She’d been trying to deny the depth of her feelings for Kara for quite some time now. Weeks, maybe. She’d first known when Kara had stood up to the reporter on Lena’s behalf. It had been very intensely solidified when she saw Kara’s paintings in the warehouse. She was in love with Kara Danvers.

And that scared her far more than Lillian’s actions yesterday. It also filled her with a profound happiness she never thought she _could_ feel. But now that this feeling had taken up residence in her heart, she didn’t want to lose it. She wanted to cling to it for all she was worth, but what if she did lose it. . .?

Forcing herself to stop spiraling, she finished her shower and dressed in jeans and one of her alumni hoodies. When she came out to the kitchen she found Kara had returned, fully dressed in a cute grey sweater with a white button-up blouse underneath and black slacks that hugged her hips in all the right ways. Kara’s face lit up like a Christmas tree upon seeing Lena which made the brunette’s heart flutter wildly. She’d grown to love that smile more than she could remember loving anything.

“You didn’t say no to my suggestion of waffles so I hope you’re in the mood,” Kara said. “I’ve been keeping them warm in the oven. I also got us some omelets and a bag of donuts because, erm. . . I burn a lot of calories flying around. The sun regenerates a lot, but bench pressing sub marines is hungry work.”

Lena grinned and placed a soft kiss on Kara’s lips, then got out some plates and set them on the island. She then poured them some orange juice while Kara dished them up. After they sat down, Kara pulled her tablet to her and took a huge bite of waffle.

“I noticed you emailed the executive team you’d be working from home today and tomorrow, but you still plan on attending the gala this Saturday?” Kara asked. She wasn’t wearing her glasses, to Lena’s surprise, but she loved that Kara could take them off around her now without worrying or feeling like she was revealing part of herself she couldn’t reveal.

“It’s more for PR than anything. It wouldn’t exactly look great if I went back to work the next day after my wife had an assassination attempt on her life. Although to be honest I don’t think I’d be handling this so well if I didn’t know you were Supergirl. So _thank you_ , Kara, for trusting me enough to tell me.”

Kara leaned over and gave her an ever-so-slightly sticky kiss on the cheek (sticky from the mountains of syrup currently drowning her waffles). “You’re welcome! And sorry! No kissing at work, I’m sorry.”

A slow smile worked its way through Lena’s lips. “We’re not at work, darling.”

She then pulled Kara back to her, though instead of kissing her, Lena ran her tongue over Kara’s lips, effectively cleaning off the syrup. Kara squeaked and pulled back, giving her a mock-wounded puppy look.

“ _Twice_ , Lena? You’re evil!”

Lena purred a laugh. “I think we may have to put ‘licking’ on your short list of weaknesses.”

One of Kara’s eyebrows arched. “Maybe just your tongue.”

It was difficult to focus on breakfast after _that_ remark, but somehow Lena managed. Afterwards, Lena was about to settle on the couch with her laptop when Kara seemed to notice for the first time that Lena had a full-sized grand piano in her living room.

“Do you play?” Kara asked, running her fingertips along the white keys.

Lena set her laptop on the couch and joined Kara at the piano. “I come from an elitist, snobby, rich family, of course I play,” she said with a sardonic smile. “Lionel refused to allow his youngest child to pursue science alone. I suppose in a way I’m grateful, despite the fact that I hated learning to play. It gave me a deep appreciation of the arts over time. Much like you mentioned in your job interview, art and science are at their very best when they are combined, not separate.”

“I love music, though I have no gift for it,” Kara said, gazing at the keys with a hint of sadness in her eyes. “We had the most beautiful music on Krypton, famous symphonies performed by incredible orchestras with instruments of endless beauty and variety. It’s why I’ve always been drawn to classical music. Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 reminds me of a concerto from Krypton.”

“You like Tchaikovsky?” Lena asked, surprised. It wasn’t every day she found people who even knew who the classical composers were outside the music major world.

“I do,” Kara replied.

“May I play something for you, for Krypton? It’s not Tchaikovsky, it’s Debussy, but I want to play it for you. A lament for Krypton,” Lena asked softly.

Kara glanced at her, emotion already showing in her beautiful eyes. She worried her lower lip and nodded once, joining Lena on the bench.

Lena straightened her back and placed her slender fingers on the keys in perfect pianist posture. She then took a deep breath, and as she exhaled she began _“Clair de Lune”_ by Claude Debussy.

Lena played the first chords slowly, with meaningful intention, pouring all her sorrow for Kara and her people in each lovingly played keystroke. Her eyes drifted shut as muscle memory took over, freeing her mind and heart to flood each note with mourning. When she reached the last few measures of the song, she slowed to a soulful legato, playing each chord softer and softer until the music faded to pianissimo. She held a fermata on the last note and carried it until it faded to silence, and still she held down the keys for a few measured breaths before releasing and folded her hands in her lap.

When Lena looked up, she saw Kara’s cheeks stained with tears which were still openly streaming down her face. Lena turned on the piano bench and wrapped her arms around Kara, pulling her in a tight embrace. She didn’t know how long they sat there, gently rocking back and forth as Kara quaked with soft cries in her arms, but she would have held Kara to the end of time if Kara needed her to.

Eventually Kara pulled back and wiped her face. “I’m sorry. I’m a bit of a mess.”

Lena reached out and caressed Kara’s cheek, brushing away a stray tear. “You never have to apologize to me for _feeling_ , you hear me Kara Zor-El?” she said, kissing tears away on Kara’s other cheek. “You lost your _world_.”

“I’ve never had anyone do that for me,” Kara said softly. “Clark never wants to talk about Krypton, I think it’s easier for him to pretend he’s human and just ignore it. The Danvers. . . they never knew what to say or do so I tended to just spend a lot of time alone studying or painting. But a lament. . . No one has ever given me that. _Thank you_ , Lena. You don’t know what it meant to me.”

“Tell me about Krypton,” Lena said with a loving smile. “I want to know everything."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear there will be more plot lol I'm just having fun writing fluff. The world needs more fluff damnit! Also if you've never heard "Clair de Lune," go listen to it right now!! This version is a great one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e96lkRatLc.


	10. Periwinkle Kryptonite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I heard about periwinkle kryptonite from a reviewer on another fic of mine and I just had to play with it. X3

Despite having cried harder than she could ever remember crying in her life on Thursday, Kara loved the rest of her week. They accomplished incredible things together working from Lena’s apartment, especially because Kara didn’t have to hide any of her powers any longer. If she needed to super speed through anything, she could. If she needed to fly out the window to the gala venue to sort out details, she could. It was remarkably liberating. Lena had chosen National City’s old opera house ballroom as the venue where Kara had arranged to have the city’s philharmonic orchestra play before an auction and a silent auction. She had booked a DJ for the rest of the gala, several experienced bartenders, and booked a catering company that catered specifically to rich people with big wallets.

For their date on Friday, they had seen the musical _“Phantom of the Opera”_ which Kara had never seen and was an emotional wreck during some of the beautiful scores. They had the best balcony seats in the house thanks to Lena’s extremely generous donation to the theatre guild, the funds of which would be used to renovate the theatre. Afterwards they had gone to a little tea parlor in Scotland and she had the best scones of her life. After flying them back to Lena’s apartment, they shared a string of soft, romantic kisses that lit up every happiness center in Kara’s brain and left her feeling happier than she could ever remember feeling.

At around five Saturday morning, Kara’s internal alarm woke her up and she carefully extricated herself (regretfully) from Lena’s arms and set to work finishing all the details for the gala. She wanted everything to be perfect and to go off without a hitch. Considering she suspected Lillian might try something during this gala, it was a tall order to hope everything would go off without a hitch, but she had to try. She hired extra security, warned Alex and Maggie to hide a gun under their dresses when they came, and told J’onn and Winn to do the same in their tuxedos.

When Lena got up in the morning, they had such a busy schedule they didn’t really have time to spend together, aside from getting ready and having their hair styled together by professional stylists. It wasn’t until they were in the back of Lena’s black SUV on the way to the gala that they at last found themselves alone. Lena raised the barrier between them and her driver before turning to Kara.

“I have something for you,” Lena said, reaching into her gold purse which matched the gold jewelry adorning her neck and wrist. She withdrew a pair of glasses and offered them to her.

Kara accepted them, confusion rippling across her brow. “What are these?”

“I know you didn’t ask, but it’s a new Supergirl suit,” Lena said, averting her eyes. “I don’t know who designed yours for you, but it seems entirely impractical for you to be flying around in a skirt. I can change the design for you if you don’t like it, but there are other benefits to the nanotech. You will no longer have to change; it will cover whatever you’re wearing. There’s a button built into the side of the frame that you just need to press to activate it. It’s also more durable than your current suit—it’s made from a metal that doesn’t even exist on Earth. I can show you the specs for it if you like. I’m assuming with all that fancy Kryptonian education you understand quantum computing.”

Kara looked over the glasses in wonder. “You made this for me? But I just barely told you I was Supergirl last week.”

“I work fast,” Lena grinned.

“Why didn’t I ever think of that? A suit that _covers_ what I’m wearing instead of underneath it; it’s brilliant,” Kara said more to herself than anything as she used X-ray vision to look more closely at the glasses. “How fast does it cover my body?”

“It will take about three seconds, but I can make it faster once I calibrate it to your body,” Lena replied. “The only thing it can’t change is your hair. But I’m sure you can do that easily enough.”

“How do I deactivate it?” Kara asked.

“A small touch-activated interface on your right temple will deactivate the suit and turn back into your glasses,” Lena said.

Kara felt a swell of emotion as she looked at Lena. For lack of knowing what else today, she said simply, “ _Thank_ you, Lena.”

Lena’s smile softened and Kara’s heart fluttered wildly at the love she saw radiating from those jade pools. “I’d kiss you but I’d get lipstick all over you.”

Kara removed her old glasses and slid across the seat. She pressed herself up against Lena’s side, cupping Lena’s face so their lips were mere inches apart. “I don’t mind if you don’t.”

Lena didn’t seem to mind a bit. She closed the distance between them and fused their lips in a soft kiss. Or at least it started out soft. By the time the car stopped outside the gala venue, it had escalated to a very messy kiss involving a lot of tongue. Kara somehow broke away from Lena’s lips and leaned back against the seat to catch her breath. Lena was in a similar state, her cheeks delightfully flushed and breath ragged.

“Good thing I brought my lipstick,” Lena chuckled weakly, digging it out of her purse.

They cleaned their lips and reapplied lipstick just in time for a valet to open the car door for them. Kara stepped out first then offered her hand to Lena who accepted it and Kara guided her into the opera house. She was sure they looked devastating together, Lena in her sleeveless, backless, halter-top sequined red evening gown, and Kara in her pale blue flowing dress, and both of them had beautifully styled hair and makeup. She hoped Lena considered her good arm candy.

The first hour or so of the gala was fairly tedious as was the case for such gatherings. It was a lot of speeches and photographs (though Kara enjoyed posing for couples pictures with Lena) and more speeches. Eventually Kara and Lena got separated in the crowd, partially so Lena could mingle with rich snobs and Kara could check on the status of the silent auction and check the perimeter of the gala for any signs of trouble Lillian might try to stir up.

After the string quartet finished and the music switched to a DJ, she found a few new people had arrived late on purpose—most likely the richest and snobbiest of all guests who believed it to be in good taste to show up late—but nothing out of the usual. Kara suspected if Lillian was going to try something, though, it would be when the gala was in full swing, for which Kara had planned accordingly. Winn had installed some scanners around the opera house so they’d have an early warning system in the event Lillian tried something. Flipping on her earpiece, she X-rayed the new guests as they entered the ballroom.

“How are the scans coming, Winn?” she asked into the comm.

“Nothing unusual so far, other than the millions of dollars worth of diamonds and jewels. Rich people are such show-offs,” he replied.

“Alex, Maggie, J’onn, anything?” Kara asked into the comm.

“Nothing yet,” Alex replied. “Although thanks for ‘inviting’ us to this fancy ass party and then making us work security.”

“What are sisters for?” Kara smirked. “Besides, I get the feeling local security won’t cut it for whatever Lillian might try.”

“I’m glad you’ve lumped me in with your band of secret agent warriors, but next time you invite me to a party, can you just let me party please?” Maggie complained into the comm.

“Oh please, you’d get bored in a second and you know it,” Kara shot back playfully.

“Hey, I’m picking up an alien presence at the east entrance; big guy with a weird energy signature. Might want to check it out as Supergirl,” Winn’s voice interrupted on the comm.

Kara quickly found Lena in the crowd and strode to her. She was conversing with a rich looking woman in a red dress that had been tailored around a large snake tattoo covering half her body. Kara also suddenly felt a powerful wave of jealousy when seeing how close the woman was standing to Lena, how her whole body language was flirtatious, and her smile seductive. She didn’t feel entirely comfortable with Lena’s equally flirtatious grin. She tried to tell herself that Lena was being polite and perhaps even playful, but it did little to calm the feelings of jealousy. Maybe she was just friendly with this woman. Still, she couldn’t stop herself from slipping her hand on Lena’s lower back possessively as she sidled up to the brunette.

“Small situation has come up, Supergirl is going to take care of it,” Kara said, pressing her cheek to Lena’s so only she could hear her. She kissed Lena’s cheek and waved politely to the woman before slipping away. Once out of sight of people and security cameras, Kara tried out the new suit Lena had made her. She pressed the button on the glasses and watched in surprise as her body became covered by the suit. And the best part was, it had pants. Now that she thought about it, she had absolutely no idea how she had let Winn talk her into wearing a skirt all this time. She sped to the east entrance to find a giant gladiator looking monstrosity of an alien who had just began a scuffle with some very unhappy looking security guards. Just as the alien started swinging his fist towards one of the guard’s faces (to undoubtedly pulverize it), Kara sped in front of the alien’s fist which landed on her face instead of the security guard’s.

The alien was stronger than humans. It might have killed the security guard had he landed the hit. As it was, it was decidedly _not_ the gladiator’s lucky day. When his fist made contact with her face she didn’t even flinch, but the bones in his fist cracked like hard candy under a hammer. He let out a bellow of pain and raged and stumbled back away from her, clutching his fist.

“Tell your boss this gala is off limits, do you hear me?” she said, taking a menacing step forward.

Still growling in pain, he reached into a side pocket of his cargo pants and withdrew what looked like a softly glowing, periwinkle blue stone of some kind.

“Die, Supergirl!” he growled.

Everyone present looked upon him in confusion for several seconds. Kara almost expected kryptonite, but the stone didn’t inflict any harm on her. If anything, she felt a sudden gentle tingle flow through her body, the effect of which left her feeling relaxed. Happy. In a heightened state of arousal. Alert. But definitely aroused.

She laughed. “I think you grabbed the wrong rock,” she smirked before head-butting him unconscious. She didn’t know what that was all about, but she had a sudden overpowering urge to find Lena. So powerful, in fact, that she ignored Alex, J’onn, and Maggie as soon as they arrived in favor of going back to the ballroom to find her blushing bride.

* * *

Lena was in the middle of a bit of an overly flirtatious conversation with an old friend, Veronica Sinclair (who was clearly hoping for a booty call with Lena, despite knowing Lena was married now), when she suddenly felt a warm hand on the small of her back. Startled, she turned to find herself looking into gorgeous sapphire eyes. The sight stole her breath away. Kara was looking at her with completely unmasked, overwhelming love, but with a deep undercurrent like she wanted to devour Lena whole. It took Lena several beats to gather herself enough to remember where she was and what she was doing.

“V-Veronica, this is Kara Danvers, my wife,” Lena managed somehow. “Kara, this is Veronica Sinclair. We’re old friends from boarding school.”

“Lovely to meet you,” Kara said, barely sparing a Veronica a glance. “Lena, may I have this dance?”

“Of course,” Lena replied, unable to stop a wide smile from filling her lips. She made her apologies to Veronica as Kara pulled her to the dance floor, though she didn’t miss the cool look Veronica gave them.

Once on the dance floor, Kara boldly pulled Lena close, wrapping one arm intimately around Lena’s waist, and laced the fingers of her other hand with Lena’s. Lena couldn’t help a small smile when the song _“Symphony”_ started.

“Oh? You want our couples dance to be a little Clean Bandit? But I thought you were into classical music,” she gently teased.

“The song says it all,” Kara said, her voice rich and deep and seductive and Lena had never heard Kara talk like that. “I want to be part of your symphony, to hold you tight and not let go. Rao, Lena, do you even know what this dress is doing to me?”

Lena was about to tease Kara for the cheesiness of the first lines, but that last question got her. There was something in the way Kara was holding her and dancing and _looking_ at her that was making it difficult for Lena to breathe properly. She was well aware Kara was attempting to seduce her, which was surprising, but not exactly unwanted. Or at all unwanted. In fact, Lena _wanted_.

“Oh?” she said breathlessly. “Fan of fancy evening gowns, are you?”

“I’m a fan of anything adorning your skin. Though I’m jealous of it. I’d love to be wrapped around your naked skin,” Kara replied, her voice deep and husky and _god_ it was sexy.

Lena’s eyes dropped to Kara’s lips (which were dangerously close to her own) before meeting Kara’s eyes again. “What’s put you in such a mood?” Lena asked with a soft grin, though her voice was breathless with anticipation.

Kara ghosted her lips over Lena’s. “Isn’t it obvious, Lena?” she whispered. “I want _you_. I want to bring you pleasure like you’ve never known, I want to make love to you until you shatter and scream my name over and _over_.” She emphasized the last words with soft kisses between each word.

“I think we’re in a bit of a public space for that,” Lena whispered back, though she was feeling more and more tempted to drag Kara somewhere less public and let Kara enact all the things she was proposing.

“You know, on Krypton, we had _much_ more extensive sex education with a heavy emphasis on bringing pleasure to our partners. The data banks my parents sent with me included some Kryptonian lovemaking techniques that are said to bring their partners _otherworldly_ ecstasy. I’ve mastered all of them,” Kara said, and although her tone had no small hint of cockiness, Lena could also tell Kara was telling the truth in that statement.

Lena also knew something was wrong with Kara. Damn it.

As if on cue, Alex and Maggie suddenly appeared through the crowd.

“Kara, what are you doing? You were exposed to that weird blue kryptonite; we need to get you back to the DEO for testing,” Alex said, worry lining her face.

The interruption broke the spell for Lena and she took a step away from Kara, though the Kryptonian clearly didn’t give a whit about Alex’s concern. She was still gazing at Lena with an enamored smile with an undercurrent of “I’m going to devour you whole, Lena Luthor.”

“She was exposed to kryptonite?” Lena asked, allowing her concern for Kara to overpower her intense (and very distracting) horniness. She dug in her handbag for her cell phone and opened several applications. After a few scans, Lena’s brow furrowed in confusion. “There are definitely trace elements of something like kryptonite, but I think it’s synthetic.”

“You’re so sexy when you talk about sciencey stuff. Your eyes like up like the moon,” Kara said unhelpfully and stepped back inside Lena’s bubble.

Lena sighed. She put a hand on Kara’s chest and pushed her back. Kara pouted.

“Well at least she isn’t demonstrating the same behavior as she did when exposed to red kryptonite,” Alex said, her face looking far more amused than Lena would have liked.

“What does red do?” Lena asked.

“It altered her brain chemistry, basically amplified her negative emotions and inhibited her ability to control them,” Alex replied. “It would appear this type of synthetic K is affecting her ability to control her. . .um. . .”

“Horniness?” Maggie finished for her when Alex trailed awkwardly off.

Lena snorted. “Ah. It all makes sense now.”

Although Lena was presenting a neutral smile, she couldn’t help feel a bit of disappointment. She rather loved the idea of Kara wanting to seduce her. Without her brain being altered, of course. Which she fully recognized was entirely unfair of her to want, considering she'd told Kara she wanted to go slow. She kind of wanted to go back in time and slap her past self for saying it at all.

“Also, what kind of tech do you have in that phone that you can just run molecular scans on people?” Alex demanded, eying Lena’s phone.

“Trade secrets, I’m afraid,” Lena replied with a small smirk.

“I love you.”

Everything stopped. Everyone looked at Kara.

“I’m just so gosh darn in love with you,” the horny Kryptonian continued. “I’m in love with Lena Luthor everyone! Did you know? Did anyone know? Did you know, Alex?”

The amusement in Alex’s face deepened. “I suspected.”

“And I’m married to you and we never got our honeymoon!" Kara continued. "Can we go on a honeymoon? I want to go somewhere with warm sandy beaches so I can make love to you all night under moonlight. I’m in love with you, Lena. Can we be together forever?”

She was back in Lena’s bubble again, but Lena’s smile had slipped away, replaced with a feeling of painful regret. That was twice now Kara had said she loved Lena without meaning it—the first time in the interview with Cat Grant, and now under the influence of a substance that was basically poison to Kara.

“ _Anyway_ ,” Alex said, cutting through the tense silence, “Is it all right if we steal her away for a bit? Can you hold down the gala without her?”

“How long will it take? I can probably help. What happened with the red kryptonite? Did the effects wear off over time?” Lena asked.

“No,” Alex replied. “If anything, it got worse over time untreated. We were able to synthesize a cure which we can use as a base line for this new synthetic K.”

“I feel fine, thanks for asking,” Kara interrupted. “And Alex, you’re my sister and I love you, but you’re really stepping on my romance game, here. Can’t you see I’m trying to get my hand up under that slit in Lena’s dress? I mean look at it. It’s _begging_ me to put my hand up there.”

Kara actually reached for Lena’s leg, and the brunette quickly swatted the Kryptonian’s hand away. “Okay, yeah. You should probably take her to the DEO,” Lena said, trying to ignore the fact that her face was burning.

“I don’t want to go to the DEO. I’m staying right here and dancing with you,” Kara stated.

“You could come with us, Lena,” Alex hazarded.

“And leave my own gala? That wouldn’t exactly look good. And it could lose money for the children’s hospital. That’s the whole point of this ridiculously lavish affair,” Lena argued.

“Kara molesting you in public wouldn’t exactly be good for it either,” Maggie smirked.

“Molest!” Kara exclaimed, looking highly offended. “I would never _molest_ Lena. Touch every inch of her body? Yes. Not _molest_ ; that’s crass, Maggie!”

Lena sighed. She knew what she needed to do in order for Kara to go with them. She knew she needed to turn into the seductress she, under normal circumstances, enjoyed being. Unfortunately, she’d chosen not to behave that way with Kara until they crossed the barrier of intimacy. Lena was many things, but cruel wasn’t one of them. All of this was just so _fucking_ unfair. She steeled herself for the inevitable emotional fallout for what she was about to do.

“Darling,” she purred in a deep voice, pressing herself up against Kara’s body. “If you go with your sister, when you come back, I’ll let you kiss, lick, or touch any part of me you want.” She emphasized the last part by sliding her hand around Kara’s hips to squeeze her wonderfully firm ass. “And replace this dress of mine with yourself.”

She nearly whimpered when she saw Kara’s pupils dilate even further. “Promise?” Kara asked, her voice deliciously breathless.

Lena brushed her lips along Kara's, then slowly, erotically, swept her tongue over Kara's upper lip. “Promise,” Lena said, her body shuddering in pure delight when Kara let out a whimper.

“Alex, let’s go. Right. Now,” Kara said with such abruptness it took Lena a moment to gather herself.

As the three of them retreated through the crowd, she heard Alex grumble, “Jesus, that’s one way to order a horny Kryptonian around.”

Maggie snorted.

After they were gone, Lena leaned heavily against a nearby table to catch her breath and calm her racing heart. She wanted to scream out of pure frustration. It felt like every bit of progress she made with Kara was one step forward and ten steps back. She took a deep, centering breath and was about to rejoin the gala when her phone suddenly vibrated in her hand. She glanced at the screen and when she saw it was an unknown caller, she answered with a scowl. “You have some nerve calling me after attempting to murder my wife,” Lena snapped, making her way to a quieter part of the opera house.

“Oh please,” Lillian replied, her tone cool and unapologetic. “If I wanted to kill her, she’d be dead. Those were Luthor tech drones. Luthor tech doesn’t miss.”

Lena had considered it likely they missed on purpose, especially since no one had even been harmed in the attack by a stray bullet. “What, just hoping to scare her off?”

“She’s proving a bit more resilient than I expected,” Lillian admitted to Lena’s surprise. “But no matter. One day you’ll thank me for getting rid of her.”

“Did it ever cross your mind that this was a _business_ maneuver, Mother?” Lena snapped. “Since the marriage has gone public, stock prices have risen ten percent. L-Corp’s had more positive mention in blogs and news than it ever has. ‘Commoners’ love it when royalty marries one of them. Do you honestly think I didn’t make her sign her life away in a prenup a thousand pages long? Someday you’ll stop underestimating me.”

Lena felt dirty, like she needed a shower after all those lies, but she knew it was what Lillian wanted to hear. She hated giving her mother that victory, even if it was a lie.

She could practically hear the wheels of Lillian’s brain working. “And does your secretary know this was just a business maneuver?”

“Of course not. The only way it can be convincing is if she really believes she’s married to the queen. Once the media buzz dies down, divorce papers will arrive on her desk,” Lena said, forcing her voice to sound cold and indifferent.

“How devious of you,” Lillian said, and Lena could feel the woman’s pride at the notion oozing through the phone. “Though I have just one more question. How did you get Supergirl to play security at your gala? I mean I knew you were well connected, but fraternizing with Supers? Please don’t tell me that dreadful little caped crusader has gone and poisoned your mind?”

“Again, a business maneuver. Honestly, Mother, I know we’ve had our differences over the years, but you should really try to get to know me better. You might find my methods unorthodox, but no less effective. You’ve always been short-sighted; it’s why you could never beat me at chess. When I look at the pieces on the board, I already see my victory. You are merely reactive, always only reacting to my movements.”

Lena knew she had convinced Lillian, at least for now. Nothing about this conversation felt good, but it was necessary to buy herself some time, and to protect Kara.

After a pregnant pause, Lillian said. “Maybe there’s some Luthor in you after all. Well played.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the alien gladiator is from the episode with Veronica Sinclair where she runs the alien fight club. That episode pissed me off so much, because yet again, the creators had Kara's ass handed to her by some lamebrain alien. This is how it should have gone down. He went to punch her and breaks his fist all over her face and she doesn't feel a thing. That's what should have happened. GRR.
> 
> Also. Horny Kara. *Snickers*


	11. Promises

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just another reminder that I'm leaning into the "Kara is an alien" thing. I know what is about to happen isn't in any Supergirl canon in existence, but this is fanfic, fight me. Also, enjoy! X3

As Kara, Winn, and Alex entered the DEO (J’onn and Maggie were busy arresting the unconscious alien back at the gala), Kara noticed for the first time how gosh darn many attractive people there were at this place. As a cute agent passed, Kara gave her a wide smile and a slow, “Heeey sexy.” A few other people passed by, all of whom she tried following but Alex grabbed her and steered her to a private room. As Alex sat her down on a medical bed, Kara raised an eyebrow.

“Alex I love you and all, but you’re not really who I want to be alone with right now. Now, that cutie we passed in the hall, I wouldn’t mind bringing her in here. Or go back to the gala. I miss Lena,” Kara whined.

“Oh sure, she finds everyone attractive but me,” Winn grumbled.

Kara turned her eyes on him. “You know you’re a cute little dish too, Winn. Wanna make-out with a Kryptonian?”

Winn turned about six hundred shades of scarlet and Alex put a hand on his face when he stepped towards Kara.

“Whoa there tiger,” Alex said, pushing him back. “I don’t think you would want to suffer the wrath of Lena if you went for that. And Kara would never forgive you once she’s back to normal.”

Winn pouted.

Right after hearing Lena’s name, Kara promptly tuned out whatever Alex’s response was in favor of imagining Lena in that dress again. Then slowly peeling her out of it. Then kissing every inch of that beautiful porcelain canvas that was Lena Luthor’s skin.

“Uuugghhhh are we done yet? Lena promised me I’d get to have a lot of sex with her when we go back to the gala and I’m hornnnyyyyy,” Kara wined loudly.

Alex balked. She then left and came back with an energy weapon of some kind and shot Kara with it. Kara was about to holler at Alex that it was incredibly rude to shoot someone without their express permission, but she blacked out instead.

When she came to, she was staring at the ceiling feeling much less aroused and extremely guilty.

“How long was I out?” she asked upon seeing Alex standing next to the bed. “What happened? Is Lena okay? I didn’t. . . I didn’t do anything to her. . . right? The lines between fantasy and reality were very blurry and. . . and my fantasies were very vivid.”

Alex squeezed her shoulder as Kara sat up. “No you didn’t, she’s fine. It’s late, though. The gala is probably over. You should probably go visit her apartment and maybe apologize to her for trying to feel her up in public.”

Kara covered her face in her hands and groaned. “Oh Rao. Or maybe I should just never talk to her or look at her ever again.”

“I mean if we’re being honest, I seriously doubt she minded,” Alex said with a snort of amusement.

“This isn’t _funny_ , Alex,” Kara snapped, unburying her face from her hands. “She specifically told me she wanted to go slow, and I’ve done nothing but respect that boundary until she was ready. I’ve violated her _trust_.”

“She might feel that way if she didn’t know you’re Supergirl,” Alex reasoned. “But I have to believe she’ll give you a bit of clemency, considering she knew you were poisoned with synthetic K.”

Kara rubbed her face with a heavy sigh of regret. “I can only hope. But you’re right—I should go apologize to her if she’s willing to ever speak to me again. Wish me luck.”

“Something tells me you’re about to get lucky without me needing to wish it,” Alex smirked.

“Alex!” Kara chided over her shoulder as she flew out a nearby window.

She didn’t fly straight to Lena’s apartment. She instead flew far above the city until the noise of the streets below faded and she could rest in the quiet of moonlight. She felt emotionally raw and exposed like she had with the red kryptonite, except this time all her love and desires had been put on display for all to see. She was sure she would be able to look back on this with less shame than she felt now, but that time felt far away. She’d meant every word she said to Lena, and she remembered all of it. She yearned to tell Lena that she was in love with her, but not like _that_. Not in front of everyone and certainly not under such crass circumstances. How could she go crawling back to Lena and ask forgiveness for her behavior?

Kara closed her eyes and battled against her fear and pride. She was terrified. She was absolutely terrified of losing Lena. She had lost her whole world, everything and everyone she’d ever known or loved. She couldn’t lose this too, it was too precious. It had already taken all her strength just to take a chance on Lena.

Her mother’s final command once again rang out sharply in her mind. Take care of Kal. Become the Champion of Earth. Two seemingly clear instructions, and yet one of them was made impossible by the fact that Kal was grown when she’d arrived on Earth, which only left the champion command. Could she even have a life and be champion? Kal certainly seemed to be determined with Lois, but most days Kara wasn’t even sure he remembered he wasn’t just a human with a few weird powers. He also wasn’t tasked with being Earth’s champion; that was a mantle and a destiny he had chosen. Most days Kara felt like she had no choice in the matter. If she chose anything different, she’d be betraying her mother’s dying wish.

She gazed up at the moon and imagined a world where she could choose her own destiny. She would still choose to be Kryptonian—unlike her cousin, she didn’t wish to be human. She would even choose to be Supergirl, though on her own terms, without the constant voice of her mother telling her what she wanted Kara to be, and not what Kara wanted. She indulged the fantasy to the part she truly wanted: a world with Lena by her side, and she by Lena’s. A perfect yin and yang in every way. Together they could do anything, of this Kara was absolutely certain.

As her thoughts began to center around Lena again, Kara gathered her mental fortitude and began flying back towards the city. Although she was terrified that her actions might have compromised Lena’s trust of her, she couldn’t allow that fear to stop her from apologizing; she owed Lena that much no matter the outcome. As she drew nearer to Lena’s apartment complex, dread settled in Kara’s stomach like a lump of kryptonite. What if Lena said she never wanted to see her again? Then what?

Kara deactivated her suit as she arrived at Lena’s door. She rested her forehead against it and closed her eyes, battling off sudden tears. If she lost Lena, she would bury herself behind the family crest like she always did to cope with her loss, but she didn’t know if she’d ever find herself again. She realized she shouldn’t put that much on Lena, but she’d never felt like this before, never loved someone so acutely or intensely like this before.

Kara’s hands balled up into fists. She felt frozen, unable to move. She tried to lift her hand to knock, but overwhelming fear had taken root in her heart. She’d let Lena too far in. Somehow, some way she’d let Lena in past all her defenses. The fear of it being taken away, these feelings, this _love_ was debilitating. It was similar to the fear she’d felt of losing Alex after being exposed to red kryptonite, though strangely more acute because the trust she’d built with Lena was still so new and fragile.

A stronger force within her spurred her body into action and she pushed from the door and knocked. Kara Zor-El was many things, but a coward wasn’t one of them.

* * *

Lena nearly fell off her couch in her haste to rise from it and rush to the door. Fortunately, she had at least taken off her high heels, though the gala hadn’t ended too long ago so she was still in her dress. Normally the first thing she’d do would change out of a formal evening gown, but she’d been far too stressed about Kara to focus on anything else. All she had done since getting home was pace her apartment, obsessively check her phone, and then stress-work on the specs of an invention she’d just thought of—a protective shield for Kara that would counteract the effects of kryptonite. Without stopping to wonder who might be on the other side of the door, she rushed to it and, yanking it open, threw her arms around Kara.

“Are you all right? I’ve been so worried. Are there any residual side effects? Are you in any pain?” Lena gushed all at once.

Kara didn’t stumble from the sudden, forceful hug, and Lena breathed a sigh of relief when Kara hugged her back.

“I’m okay,” Kara said softly.

Lena could tell something was wrong. She pulled back and searched Kara’s eyes, though the Kryptonian was avoiding eye contact. “Come in,” Lena said, grasping Kara’s hand. “Talk to me. Tell me what you need.”

Lena halted when Kara didn’t move. “What, just like that?” Kara asked.

Lena’s brow furrowed in concern. “Like what?”

“After my behavior tonight, I wouldn’t blame you if you never wanted to be alone with me ever again. In fact, I probably shouldn’t have even come here alone,” Kara replied, her face filling with worry as she spoke.

“No. Don’t do that. Don’t assume to know my feelings on the matter before talking to me about it,” Lena said, tugging Kara’s hand. “Come on. I’m not having this conversation with you in the hall. And no, I’m not afraid to be alone with you, silly. As if. In what universe, Kara?”

This time Kara allowed herself to be pulled into the apartment. Lena closed the door behind them and guided Kara to a bar stool at her kitchen island. She then dug around in her cabinets until she found some fancy hot chocolate and marshmallows.

“I think a hot drink will relax both of us a bit,” Lena said. “And a change of clothes after we talk will be just what we both need, don’t you think?”

Kara nodded but was still avoiding Lena’s eyes. Lena allowed her to sit in silence while she made herself tea and hot chocolate for Kara since she knew her Kryptonian had a sweet tooth. She sprinkled a handful of marshmallows on top and placed the steaming mug in front of Kara. She took a long drink from it before setting it back on the counter, holding it close to her like it was the only defense she had.

“God, I. . . I didn’t ruin the gala, did I?” Kara asked, her voice still soft as though she were afraid if she spoke too loudly, Lena might run away.

“No, everything went smoothly,” Lena reassured her with a gentle smile. “What few guests actually asked about your disappearance, I just told them you had a small family emergency. You’d be amazed how little rich snobs care about that kind of thing. You planned everything out so well, it went great. We raised more money than I’d even hoped for in donations. The silent auction sold everything.”

“I’m sorry, Lena. I’m so, _so_ sorry,” Kara said, and Lena could see the poor Kryptonian was on the brink of tears.

Lena took a slow sip of tea while gazing at Kara with a penetrating look. “I’m confused, why are you apologizing?”

“Because I came onto you like that!” Kara burst out. “You said you wanted to go slow and I _respect_ you and your decision _so_ much and I would never do that, I would never behave like that, I mean not until we crossed that boundary and you felt comfortable and safe with me and—”

“Kara, you ‘coming onto me’ was so far from the problem here, you have no idea,” Lena interrupted before Kara could continue. “What hurt was something else entirely that you said. And believe me, if we had already crossed the line of intimacy, we both would be having a very different evening. Believe me, I would have _happily_ fucked that periwinkle kryptonite straight out of your system.”

Kara’s eyes widened then she averted her eyes, blushing furiously. “Oh,” she mumbled. She then seemed to remember the other part of what Lena said and looked back up. “What did I say that hurt you, then?”

Lena took a sip of tea, more to delay having to say what was on her mind than actual wanting to take a drink. She then squared her shoulders in resolution. “You said you loved me, Kara. And I understand you were under the influence of a substance that literally altered your brain chemistry, but it’s the second time now you’ve said those words without meaning them, and it’s just _hard_ , Kara. It’s hard hearing those words when you don’t mean them because I. . . because. . .” she faltered. She swallowed hard and forced herself to meet Kara’s eyes which were wide with surprise, and—dared she believe—hope? “B-because I’m in love with you.” Lena tried to continue but emotion caught in her throat and this time it was she who averted her eyes. She meant to back-pedal or try to explain herself or _something_ , but she seemed to have lost all ability to speak in her fear.

A heavy pause that felt like it lasted a small eternity ensued. Then, when Lena felt like she just might crawl out of her skin from anxiety, Kara said softly, “You _love_ me?”

“Don’t make me say it again, not if you don’t feel the same way,” Lena all but whispered, closing her eyes to try and brace herself to the worst-case scenario of things Kara might say.

“Lena, I don’t think you quite understand what synthetic kryptonite does to me. It only takes away my normal reservations and inhibitions. It doesn’t alter my feelings or pull them out of thin air,” Kara replied. “Everything I said and did I _meant_ with every fiber of my being.” She suddenly rose from the barstool and moved around the island. She carefully took Lena’s hands in her own, kissing the backs of each of them. “The only reason I haven’t told you how I feel is because you said you wanted to go slow and I didn’t want to feel like I was rushing you trying to guilt you into sleeping with me or something. It’s why I feel so guilty about my behavior, because I respect you too much to ever do either of those things.”

“You. . . you meant what you said?” Lena asked, still not daring to speak above a whisper.

“If you’re referring to whether or not I’m in love with you, the answer is yes,” Kara said, her eyes radiating that familiar warmth and love that had a way of soothing all of Lena’s fears into nothingness. “I’m in love with you, Lena Luthor. I’ve _been_ in love with you since the interview with Miss Grant. Probably before then. Rao, do you know how hard it’s been not telling you?”

Lena could have laughed in sheer relief. Kara loved her. Kara Danvers was in love with her. She could hardly believe her ears. “You love me too?” she asked, mostly because she really wanted to hear Kara say it again.

Kara rewarded her with a smile so soft and loving it made Lena’s breath get caught in her throat. She leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to Lena’s lips before pulling back to gaze into her eyes. “I do. I love you. I’m _in love_ with you, Lena. And I hope you can forgive my earlier behavior trying to speed things up. I’m here, and we can still go as slow as you need. I’m not going anywhere.”

“I don’t want to go slow anymore, Kara,” Lena said all at once. “I only said it because I was scared and couldn’t believe someone like you—someone as _amazing_ as you—could possibly love or want me. But to be honest, this has been the most trying week of my life to stick to that—you don’t make it easy to stay away from you. I don’t want to fight this anymore. I don’t want to be afraid anymore. I just want _you_ , Kara.”

The look she received nearly made Lena’s knees go weak. _So_ much love and happiness and anticipation and excitement and tenderness was radiating from Kara’s face it just made want Lena to melt down into a puddle of stupid happy tears.

“God, Kara. . .” she breathed before surging forward to pull her sweet Kryptonian into a fierce embrace. Kara returned it, lifting Lena off the floor and spun them around in the kitchen with a happy laugh—the sound resonating down through to Lena’s very soul.

“I love you, Lena Luthor, I love you. I love you,” she repeated over and over again until all thought or memory of fear that it might not be the case was nothing but a distant illusion of a memory.

Lena didn’t want to stop Kara from saying those beautiful words, but her desire to kiss her over powered all else. Cupping Kara’s face in her hands, she fused their lips together in a kiss filled with love and yearning and many promises of things to come. Though still wearing her evening gown, the slit in the side ran high enough that it allowed her to wrap her legs around Kara’s waist. She couldn’t stop a small whimper of delight when she felt her back press up against the fridge. It was thrilling beyond measure to be pinned by _Supergirl_. Lena had a feeling whatever was about to happen was going to be earth-shattering and it was as exhilarating as it was enthralling and perhaps a little terrifying. But at the same time, she’d never felt more ready to plunge into the unknown than this moment.

“Darling,” Lena panted between messy, heavenly kisses, “Can we _please_ get out of these dresses now?”

“Rao, I’ve been dying for you to say that all night,” Kara rasped, pulling Lena from the fridge and carrying her towards Lena’s bedroom.

Lena vaguely heard Kara kick off her heels somewhere between the kitchen and the bedroom, but she was far more distracted by Kara’s lips beneath hers. Kara’s lips were _so_ soft and yielding and supple and Lena had never been kissed like this before. When they reached the bedroom, Lena found herself pinned again, this time against the bedroom door, the upshot of which made her whimper into Kara’s mouth.

Lena’s hands, somewhere between cupping Kara’s face and messing up the blonde’s once-perfect hair, slid down to pull off Kara’s glasses and tossed them carelessly on the floor, then down to fumble with the zipper on the back of Kara’s dress. Kara set Lena carefully on the ground, only to kneel in front of her. She slowly ran her fingertips up along Lena’s exposed calf and up to her thigh.

“Permission to replace this dress with myself?” Kara murmured, closing her eyes as she brushed her lips along the inside of Lena’s knee and up along her inner thigh. “I seem to recall you promising me I could earlier.”

Lena was glad she had the door to lean against, otherwise her legs might have given out on her as Kara’s other hand started lifting her dress to her hips. “Only if you plan to make good on those ‘Kryptonian lovemaking techniques’ _you_ promised,” Lena teased, though her voice sounded (embarrassingly) breathless in her own ears.

Kara’s lips paused their ascent on Lena’s inner thigh and she glanced up at her, the blonde’s eyes wide with hope and anticipation. “Really? You. . . you’re okay trying something a little more. . . alien?”

Lena thought of all possible ways she could answer that and realized there were entirely too many variables (and a lot of them incredibly perverted) before she could offer genuine consent. “I mean, it doesn’t involve tentacles or anal probes, does it?”

Kara nipped Lena’s inner thigh for _that_ remark, but she was grinning. “No. It’s just an energy exchange. Sort of. It’s more complicated than that. But let me take you there. Trust me, trust that you’re safe with me and I’ll take care of you. Do you trust me, Lena?”

As Kara slowly rose to her feet, she brought the fabric of Lena’s dress with her. Lena lifted her arms and allowed Kara to pull it over her head, their eyes locking as the dress fell to the floor, forgotten. “I trust you, Kara,” Lena breathed. “Take me there. I am yours.”

A moment passed between their electrified gaze, a deep breath before the plunge. And then their lips collided again with near bruising force in a kiss filled with passion and desire and promise. Lena found herself pulled from the door and just had time to unzip Kara’s dress before the backs of her knees hit the edge of the bed. Trembling fingers fumbled with fabric and lacey underwear before at last falling back onto the bed. Breaking away from the kiss only so she could slide up the bed, Lena beckoned to Kara with her index finger and a seductive smile. The Kryptonian crawled up the bed like a predator stalking her prey, and the sight of Kara coming towards her like that had Lena’s head swimming with arousal and lust. As Kara settled over her their lips fused again and Lena groaned softly as Kara’s naked skin pressed against hers for the first time. And _god_ Kara was so soft and warm and yet she could still feel all that raw power radiating from her and it was intoxicating as hell.

Lena hissed in a breath as Kara kissed and nipped her way down the brunette’s neck and collarbone while Kara’s knee cleverly slid up between Lena’s thighs. Lena rolled her hips up, already desperate for some relief of the pressure building within her, digging her fingertips into Kara’s back. Lena arched up against Kara as the blonde took one of her breasts into her mouth with a soft cry. Kara was _so_ tender and loving and intentional with every kiss of her lips, every sweep of her tongue. She worshiped Lena’s entire upper body with her lips and tongue as though she were sacred, and Lena could swear this is what it was to have a religious experience.

Kara kissed her way back up to find Lena’s lips again, latching on in a searing kiss when she found them. She encouraged Lena to grind her hips up against Kara’s thigh, and Lena willingly complied, spreading her legs further so she could grind her exposed clit for some much needed stimulation. Kara groaned into Lena’s lips in response, tearing away from the kiss only to lock eyes with the brunette as she continued to rock over her.

“Lena. . .” she breathed, her sapphire eyes glowing with wonder and desire and love and it was the most beautiful sight Lena had ever seen in her life. “I love you. I love you, Lena Luthor.”

Lena could have cried if she weren’t so incredibly aroused by everything happening right now. This was different than all the other times she’d had sex, and she’d had a lot of it. But this? This was making love—something Lena thought was mere sensibility until this beautiful moment. And suddenly all those cheesy love songs made sense. Kara adjusted to one elbow so she could bring her other hand up to ghost her fingertips over Lena’s lips.

“You’re so beautiful, Lena,” she whispered, placing a soft kiss to the corner of Lena’s lips.

Lena ran her tongue along the bottom of Kara’s index and middle finger before taking both into her mouth, locking eyes with Kara all the while. She watched in smug delight as Kara’s eyes widened, drifting down to Lena’s mouth to watch as Lena sucked on the fingers the brunette hoped would soon be inside her. Watching Lena closely for discomfort, Kara pushed her fingers in further, whimpering softly when Lena took her in, erotically sweeping her tongue along the bottom of Kara’s fingers all the while. This went on for a short time before Kara withdrew them and fused their lips again, licking hungrily and deeply into Lena’s mouth.

Lena nearly whined when the wonderful pressure of Kara’s thigh disappeared from her throbbing clit, but it turned into a muffled cry against Kara’s lips when those wet fingers replaced it. Kara swirled her fingertips in teasing, _maddening_ circles on Lena’s swollen arousal until Lena felt as though she might break from sheer need to be released from this cage of primal desire.

When Kara finally, _finally_ teased Lena’s entrance with a slick finger, Lena’s hips bucked against it, trying desperately to take her inside while digging her fingernails into Kara’s shoulders.

Kara nibbled Lena’s lower lip before breaking away from their messy kiss to look upon Lena once again. “Are you ready?” she whispered, her eyes filled with love and anticipation and wonder and _god_ would Lena honestly ever deny Kara anything?

Lena’s aroused brain took a moment to realize Kara was asking about the Kryptonian lovemaking technique, not about being penetrated.

“Yes,” Lena rasped, her heartrate spiking from the thrill of the unknown.

“Okay,” Kara whispered, kissing Lena’s cheek. “I might glow a little bit, but that’s normal. Is that. . . is that okay? Does that frighten you or make you uncomfortable?”

“Kara, I don’t care if you light the whole building on fire, just _please_ stop teasing me!” Lena blurted out, letting out a piteous groan as a second of Kara’s fingers teased her entrance.

She must have said the magic words because suddenly Kara was inside her with one fluid motion, the effect of which had Lena arching off the bed with a harsh curse. She opened up for Kara like she was made for her, made for this moment, made to give herself to the beautiful Kryptonian Kara Zor-El who fell from the sky all those years ago.

Lena’s head spun with a torrent of emotions ranging from love and lust for the incredible person on top of her, to sheer arrogance that she was being fucked by the powerful being known as Supergirl. And _fuck_ Kara knew what to do with those clever fingers. She pressed her palm to Lena’s burning clit so she could rut roughly against it while Kara swirled and thrust her fingers into Lena, quickly bringing her to the knife’s edge of release.

And then Kara began to glow. If asked afterwards to describe it, she wasn’t sure she could find the right words. She only knew she could suddenly _feel_ the sexual energy coming from Kara, heightening every sensation, lighting up every nerve ending in her body like a string of firecrackers going off all at once. But more than just sexual energy, she could feel Kara’s desire and pleasure from giving, so much so, she could tell Kara was also close to the edge. Somewhere in her haze, Lena managed to press her thigh up between Kara’s legs with the hope of it being enough to bring Kara to climax with her because _god_. . . she could actually _feel_ how much Kara needed it. And not just because Kara began immediately painting Lena’s thigh with her arousal. She might have been overwhelmed by all these new sensations if it weren’t all building within her to an inevitable conclusion that promised to be the most intense orgasm of her life. Her heart pounded in her ears with anticipation and a thrill of fear, like the feeling one might feel before bungee jumping off a suspension bridge built over the deepest canyon in the world, the bottom of which couldn’t even be seen.

“Kara. . .” Lena panted, battling off the intense pleasure trying desperately to break free as Kara’s fingers continued to drive mercilessly into her. “Kara I’m going to. . .!”

Lena’s hand slid up Kara’s neck, entangling in the thick blonde hair at the base of her skull and held on in some attempt to stay grounded in reality. She clung to Kara, the fingernails of her other hand digging into the soft skin of Kara’s back, and her leg hooking around Kara’s waist as though she might fall from reality if she let go.

To say it was “other-worldly ecstasy” wasn’t inaccurate, if a bit of a _massive_ understatement. In retrospect, considering she was making love to an alien, she shouldn’t have been surprised it would be different, but this? This _shattered_ Lena. She was unmade when she came. The whole world around her vanished into nothing but a singularity of pleasure, sensations, and emotions, all of which she didn’t know if they were hers or Kara’s. She felt more than heard Kara saying _‘I love you’_ over and over with each wave of acute pleasure, and she was vaguely aware that she was arching off the bed and into Kara, her head thrown back in an uncontrolled, completely uninhibited cry of ecstasy. The bed groaned against the wild bucking of their hips, but neither noticed or cared as it extended on in seemingly endless aftershocks.

Lena had no idea how long she lay there afterwards, Kara draped bonelessly on top of her as they tried to catch their breath, their hearts pounding together as one. She was broken. Unmade. Reborn. She may have felt vulnerable and exposed if she hadn’t _felt_ so much of what Kara felt through all of that. And god. . . Kara’s desire and love for Lena was so _real_ , so profound it made tears sting the corners of Lena’s eyes. Lena couldn’t find it within herself to feel anything but safe and loved and. . .

“Holy _fuck_ , Kara,” Lena whispered because she currently lacked the vocabulary to properly speak words at the moment. Or perhaps ever again. Lena was amazed Kara hadn’t fucked language right out of her. Or maybe new languages right into her. Was she still speaking English?

“You’re telling me,” Kara chuckled weakly.

Lena involuntarily shuddered when Kara carefully removed her fingers from within her and settled more comfortably on top of her, sprinkling soft kisses along her neck and cheek. She was no longer glowing, but she was still so soft and warm and safe. If Lena thought she was hopelessly in love with Kara before, it was nothing compared to this feeling. It could possibly be the Earth-shattering sex talking, but Lena was fairly certain Kara had broken her for anyone else ever again. She suddenly experienced an overpowering wave of jealousy at the idea that Kara might have done this incredibly intimate lovemaking technique with someone else. She knew it was emotionally too much to deal with right now.

Still, Lena was too curious for her own good. “You said you mastered that technique,” Lena said cautiously. “You’ve done this technique with other. . . with other people?”

Kara ghosted her lips along Lena’s jawline, then pressed a soft kiss to Lena’s lips. “No. You’re the first,” she said softly.

“But then. . . how did you ‘master’ that?” Lena asked, though she couldn’t help sounding relieved at Kara’s admission.

“Well. . . I may have exaggerated a little, but it was that stupid kryptonite!” Kara added quickly. “The emotional/energetic exchange is something Kryptonians do from around five years of age, and there are many forms of it. It’s an innate ability within us, it’s almost like hugging to us. Doing it during sex is just one variation of it, but it isn’t an innately sexual act, though sex certainly amplifies it. Even though you don't have the ability, it’s a two-way exchange. You felt my pleasure and I yours. There’s more to it, but I can’t really explain it in English. We have words for it in Kryptonian, but it doesn’t really translate well.”

Lena ran her fingers across Kara’s forehead, brushing a stray strand of hair from her beautiful face. Of all the ways she’d seen this night ending, this wasn’t it, and she couldn’t have been happier to have guessed wrong. “Was that your first time doing that since. . . since Krypton?” she asked softly.

Kara moved her hand from between Lena’s legs and up her side to pull her into a gentle embrace. “Yes. The last time was two days before Krypton was destroyed. We shared a family ‘Joining,’ we’ll call it, after Kal was born to welcome him into the world and our family and to give him our love. I’d forgotten about that.”

When Lena saw that familiar sadness creep into Kara’s beautiful eyes, she reached up and caressed Kara’s cheek before pulling her into a soft kiss. It lingered and deepened, neither quite ready for round two, but both already longing for more closeness.

Eventually Lena became aware she felt different somehow. At first she thought it was just an effect of the intense afterglow she’d been experiencing, but that was fading. Whatever this was, it wasn’t going away. Lena reluctantly pulled back from their kiss, her brow furrowing in thought.

“So you’ve never ‘Joined’ with a human before? Not even a family ‘Joining’ with the Danvers or Clark?” Lena asked.

“No,” Kara shook her head. “Why?”

“Just thinking there might possibly be some tiny little side effects we maybe possibly didn’t anticipate,” Lena replied casually.

Kara’s eyes widened and she propped herself up on her elbows. “Side effects? Are you okay? What do you--?”

Lena cut off Kara’s worrying with a soft kiss. “It’s okay. I just feel. . . stronger? And I think I can hear your heartbeat. Actually. . . let me try something.”

Lena slid her hands down Kara’s abdomen and lifted up when she reached her hips. Both of them gasped in surprise when Kara lifted completely off the bed with virtually no effort on Lena’s part.

“Oh my,” Lena said, quickly lowering Kara back on top of her. “I’m guessing with your powers of the yellow sun, performing a ‘Joining’ has given me temporary powers as an unexpected side effect. At least. . . I’m assuming it’s just temporary. Maybe it wears off with the afterglow?”

Kara’s face turned beet red and she buried her face in the pillow next to Lena’s head. “Oh Rao, I’m so sorry, Lena. I didn’t even think of that. I was so excited to Join with you, I didn’t stop to think of the possible outcomes. I keep messing things up with us, I’m sorry!”

Lena heard Kara’s breath catch in frustration and immediately wrapped her arms around her beautiful Kryptonian in a fierce embrace. “Kara. You haven’t messed anything up, you worry too much. If anything, this is _serious_ bragging rights.”

Kara looked up and questioningly into Lena’s eyes. “What do you mean?”

“You literally fucked superpowers right into me,” Lena said with a playful (and perhaps very smug) smirk. “But seriously, didn’t you research this first?”

Kara’s head fell back into the pillow with a groan. “It’s not fair. I _did_ research to make sure the human brain could handle it, that the neurological stimuli wouldn’t overwhelm your nervous system. I ran simulations in the Fortress of Solitude a while back. All that technology and it couldn’t predict _this_? Useless.”

Lena used her newfound super strength to flip Kara beneath her who let out an adorable, surprised squeak. She proceeded to silence her Kryptonian with a series of bruising kisses that involved a lot of biting. She then reached down and grabbed both of Kara’s hands, lacing their fingers as she pinned them over Kara’s head.

Lena tore her lips away from Kara’s only so she could rake her eyes over Kara’s beautiful naked body as she began rolling her pelvis over Kara’s abs. “I think it’s our scientific duty to run some tests on this little discovery of ours, don’t you think?” Lena asked with a playfully seductive smirk.

She watched in delight as Kara’s eyes both widened and darkened. “Oh? Something you had in mind?” she asked, her voice already breathless in anticipation.

“Well,” Lena purred, kissing Kara’s cheek and jawline, “for one, I’ve been dying to figure out a way to mark my territory. I may have to see if I can now.”

“You mean like a super hickie?” Kara asked as Lena kissed her way down to Kara’s neck.

Lena bit her neck _hard_ for that remark and was rewarded with a surprised hiss of breath from Kara. Encouraged, Lena latched onto Kara’s neck and roughly sucked on the exposed skin. To her surprise, Kara writhed and groaned beneath her, but she was able to keep Kara pinned with her newfound strength. It was thrilling beyond measure. She was pinning Supergirl. Motherfucking _Supergirl_. When she was good and done bruising Kara’s skin, she leaned back to admire her handiwork. Releasing one of Kara’s hands, she slid her fingers along Kara’s arm and to her cheek, using her thumb to tilt Kara’s chin to the side. She thoroughly enjoyed the blush that filled Kara’s cheeks as Lena gazed down at her in smug satisfaction.

“Like what you see?” Kara asked, that Kryptonian pride sneaking through as she gazed back at Lena.

“Very much,” Lena purred, pressing her lips to Kara’s. “Now. What do you say we see what fun we can have with these new super powers of mine?” she asked, already kissing her way down Kara’s chest and naval.

Kara’s small whimper of approval, and the way her hands quickly found Lena’s hair as she continued downwards, suggested she very much wanted exactly that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before any Mass Effect fans come after me, YES the "Joining" was inspired by the asari meld. I love the shit out of Mass Effect (except the end of ME 3 obvi), I've written tons of ME fanfic, calm down. I just didn't want her alien aspects to just be super powers or a penis (because her having a penis wouldn't even be alien, that would simply be another aspect of being human). But don't think for a second I won't have some strap-on action at some point. X3


	12. Scientific Inquiry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah don't read the beginning of chapter at work lol. Also, I've bumped the rating to "Explicit" just to be on the safe side, because this fic is about to get hella dirty lol. So read at work at your own peril lol.

Kara’s internal alarm didn’t wake her up at five in the morning like it usually did. In fact, the early afternoon sun was blazing through Lena’s bedroom curtains before Kara started to wake from possibly the deepest sleep of her life. She found herself in such a tangle of blankets and naked skin and limbs she wasn’t even sure she knew which limbs were hers and which were Lena’s and it was heaven.

The bed was broken. At this point it was more of a sad looking kind of nest. Kara was a little amazed after what happened last night the floor hadn’t given out. She made a mental note to X-ray the structural integrity of the floor when she was more awake. Thinking about the previous night’s activities brought a smile so wide to her lips she was unable to stop a happy hum. Lena had proven quite imaginative with super powers, which was in no small part the reason the bed was broken. They had made love long into the night and early hours of the morning until both of them could no longer move and collapsed into an utterly spent, deep sleep. Waking up like this with Lena wrapped so completely in and around her was bliss, despite the mess of the bed. She almost found it within herself to feel guilty about the state of the bed, but if she recounted the events of the night before for even a second, she regretted _nothing_. That and it was Lena who had insisted on using a whole lot of super strength/speed, not Kara, so it was really Lena’s fault that her bed was ruined.

Kara took a deep breath, inhaling the wonderful aroma that was Lena, honing in on the sound of her breath and heartbeat. Although their first Joining had given Kara a bit of apprehension about doing it again for fear of what else might happen, Lena had convinced her (with very little effort, if Kara was being honest with herself) to stop worrying and do it again. Which Kara did. Several more times.

And Kara was _so_ glad Lena did. It had been so long since she’d be able to Join with anyone, she didn’t realize how much she missed it and _needed_ it. She was grateful, in retrospect, that she’d never done a family Joining with the Danvers, because giving them all super powers would have been a mess Kara didn’t even want to imagine. But to be able to share this again with someone made her feel whole again, _herself_ again. And Rao. . . Kara knew Lena loved her, but the depth of that well was endless and beautiful and feeling all of it in combination with Lena’s lust, desire, and pleasure was, to date, the single most intensely romantic experience of her life.

Lena stirred in her arms, letting out an adorable little noise of complaint as she snuggled deeper into Kara. “I don’t wanna wake up,” Lena mumbled into Kara’s neck.

“No?” Kara grinned. “Not even if I enticed you with fancy coffee from that 3 thousand dollar espresso machine of yours?”

Lena replied with an unintelligible grumble and Kara giggled. Lena shifted again then let out another small noise of complaint. “Why’ssa bed lumpy?”

“We sort of _completely_ broke it last night, remember?” Kara replied, still giggling.

That seemed to wake Lena up a bit. She lifted her head and looked at the state of the bed, then snorted a chuckle. “Worth it,” she said, nuzzling back into Kara’s neck, this time pressing her lips to her neck with a soft kiss. “I may have to make us a Super bed. Maybe a mattress with inertial dampeners. Which. . . inertial dampeners haven’t actually been invented on Earth yet so I’ll just have to invent them. Unless you have some specs somewhere in that Fortress of Solitude of yours I could use?”

“I’d be happy to take you there today. Maybe we could run some scans and simulations while we’re there, see if your powers are temporary or permanent,” Kara suggested. “Speaking of, are you feeling Super today?”

Lena raised a perfectly arched eyebrow. “And how would you like me to test to see if I still do?” she asked with a suggestive grin.

“Hmm. . . well you could try and break the poor bed some more,” Kara replied with a smirk.

Kara suddenly found herself flipped over on her stomach for that remark, and definitely with more strength than a normal human could apply. Okay so Lena still had powers. The brunette slid those long, slender fingers behind Kara’s knee and pushed it up before sliding up the back of her thigh and ass. Reaching between Kara’s spread legs, she began teasing Kara’s clit with her fingertips, the effect of which had Kara whimpering and melting into the broken bed, her complaints at being manhandled forgotten.

“Hmm. . .” Lena pretended to contemplate Kara’s suggestion. “Well I’m not sure this bed can take much more breaking, but I’d be happy to fuck you anyway.”

Kara groaned softly and arched her back, rolling her pelvis up to allow Lena better access, only a _little_ embarrassed at how needy the action was. Lena teased her slick entrance with two fingers before gliding in, burying herself to the knuckle. Kara’s head fell forward into the mess of pillows—the only thing on the bed that remained miraculously undamaged. Taking a fistful of ruined mattress into her strong hands she used it as leverage to rock back into Lena’s equally strong hand to take her in deeper still. Lena latched onto the back of Kara’s shoulder in a harsh bite, then began darkening the skin as those clever fingers twisted and drove into her without mercy.

“More. . .” Kara panted, relieved Lena knew what she meant because she wasn’t sure she could form anymore words beyond that. Lena acquiesced to the demand, pushing in a third finger while sprinkling kisses along Kara’s back.

“Touch yourself,” Lena whispered a demand of her own, her lips now ghosting between Kara’s shoulder blades.

The imagery alone of what Lena just suggested—Lena fucking her from behind while Kara pleasured her swollen clit with her face buried in the pillows—made her inner walls flutter wildly around Lena’s fingers. She could feel her face burning, but it didn’t stop her from obeying Lena’s command. She reached between her legs and began pleasuring herself with trembling fingers, groaning and mewling into the mess of pillows as she did.

“ _Fuck_ , you’re so hot, Kara,” Lena breathed, biting down on Kara’s shoulder again.

Kara couldn’t find it within herself to feel embarrassed at how she was panting and whimpering into the pillows, her Kryptonian pride forgotten as she writhed against Lena’s palm with needy thrusts. The feel of Lena inside her again, the memory of all the times they’d made love the night before reverberating in her mind, and the feel of Lena’s naked body against hers all brought her to the edge with remarkable haste.

“Lena. . .!” Kara groaned out her lover’s name, hoping it conveyed just how close she was and how much she needed release.

“Join with me, Kara,” Lena breathed, the brunette’s heartbeat pounding in rapid counterpoint to her own. “I want to feel you come.”

Kara needed no second invitation. She focused in on the parts of their naked skin that were touching and flooded her love, pleasure, and desire through to Lena, her skin radiating with a soft glow as she Joined with her lover. Lena’s incredible carnal lust washed over Kara, the sheer force of it launching Kara into a powerful climax that ripped a scream in the form of Lena’s name from her lips. She felt it pull Lena right down with her into ecstasy, felt Lena reach down between her own legs and push three fingers inside herself, intensifying everything so much stars exploded across Kara’s vision with a second torrent of pleasure. She’d felt the intensity of Lena’s orgasms many times last night, and this time was no exception, adding to the force of her own until she was half mad from all the penetrating pleasure rippling through her. She also felt the depth and passion of Lena’s love for her, all of it overwhelming and wonderful and _everything_.

After collapsing down into the nest of a broken bed, Lena sprawled limply over her back, both panting for some time as the Joining faded and they came back down to Earth. The pillows Kara’s face was still buried in were wet with tears. It was definitely not the first time she’d gotten emotional from Joining with Lena, and she doubted it would be the last. Being able to Join with someone again made her feel complete, like a thirst, a _hunger_ within her had suddenly been satisfied after years of being denied it. It was indescribable. It was bliss.

“I suppose we should get up and let this poor bed rest in peace. And go bed shopping. And go to the Fortress of Solitude,” Lena said with a soft chuckle, peeling herself off of Kara and climbed off the bed.

Kara rolled over and watched Lena stand, allowing her eyes to drift down to Lena’s beautiful breasts, the memory of them under her echoing across her lips.

One of Lena’s eyebrows rose, a smirk playing across her lips. “Like what you see, Miss Zor-El?”

Kara’s heart fluttered at the sound of her name being spoken, her _true_ name. “I’m in love with what I see,” Kara replied, rising off the corpse of the bed to stand in front of Lena. “And crazy enough, she seems to love me, too,” she added, brushing the backs of her fingers along Lena’s rose dusted cheek.

“ _Seems_ to?” Lena mock-scoffed, sliding her hands up Kara’s chest to wrap around her neck. “I _seem_ to recall a certain ‘Kryptonian lovemaking technique,’ that happened an awful lot last night, confirmed this fact _many_ times last night.”

Kara was grinning from ear to ear as Lena kissed her before pulling Kara to the bathroom. “Speaking of Joining,” Kara said as Lena turned on the shower, “I’m not sure how we’re supposed to figure out how temporary your powers are since we Joined this morning. How long was the time between our last one last night and the one this morning?”

Lena’s face turned contemplative. “I think we fell asleep around four,” she replied, then stuck her head out of the bathroom to check the clock on her nightstand. “It’s twelve-thirty now, and we Joined around noon, so that’s about eight hours. Although there are still a lot of unaccounted-for variables. Like the number of times we Joined might affect how long the powers last?”

“How many times _did_ we Join last night?” Kara asked, stepping into the shower and pulled Lena in with her.

“Five? Or was it six?” Lena replied. “Honestly, these are not ideal circumstances to be data collecting. The scientist in me is screaming.”

“Oh is that what did all that screaming last night? The ‘scientist’ in you?” Kara teased.

Lena flicked a lump of shampoo at her and Kara giggled. Their shower probably took longer than was at all necessary because they kept getting distracted with dirty tonguing and even dirtier fondling, but Kara couldn’t find it within herself to care at all. After managing to get dressed and had breakfast, Lena collected her laptop and slipped into a warm coat while Kara found her tablet.

“Hmm. Fortress of Solitude first or bed shopping?” Lena asked. “Although, is there any point in getting a new bed we might just break again anyway? Maybe we should hold off until I can make a ‘Super-break-resistant’ bed.”

Kara looked sheepishly at the floor. “I’m sorry about your bed.”

“I’m not,” Lena replied with a smirk. “A bed in exchange for, let’s see, making love to you all night, experiencing a reality-altering Joining, _and_ got super powers? I think the price of just a bed is, frankly, highway robbery on my part. I basically won the lottery and paid for the ticket with a bed.”

“Well when you put it that way,” Kara said with a small grin, “I suppose I can’t feel _too_ bad.”

Rather than leave from Lena’s door, they went straight for the balcony of her apartment, and Kara was amazed, not for the first time, how in tune they were with one another, how they so naturally fell into step with one another.

“Want to see if flying is one of your powers?” Kara asked as Lena locked the balcony door with some program on her phone.

Lena responded by jumping in Kara’s arms bridal style. “Not right now. I think I’d like my buff Kryptonian to fly me to her Fortress instead.”

Kara’s heart flip-flopped at Lena calling her “my Kryptonian.” It occurred to her that she was still married to Lena and both of them, without a word on the matter, were still wearing their wedding rings. Although there wasn’t a single molecule within herself that still wanted to go through with their eventual planned divorce, she wasn’t sure she was quite ready to broach the subject with Lena. “‘Your Krytonian,’ huh?” she teased instead, lifting off the balcony and began flying them in the direction of the Fortress of Solitude. “Should I be worried about this possessiveness of yours, Miss Luthor?”

Lena wrapped her arms around Kara’s neck and kissed her cheek. “Only if Super hickies worry you,” she smirked.

Kara rolled her eyes playfully. “I suppose I’ll learn to live with it. And speaking of Super things, are you cold? Are your new powers protecting you from the wind chill?”

Lena glanced down at the world zooming by them. “I’m not cold, now that you mention it. I’ll note that among my powers when we get to the Fortress.”

Encouraged, Kara sped up, and they arrived in only about a minute or so with her flying at full speed. She landed lightly at the entrance and set Lena down. It was only after they walked inside and she activated the Fortress that she realized she’d never brought anyone here, not even Alex. Just as she’d seen Lena’s walls slowly crumble, Lena had somehow done the same with Kara when she wasn’t looking. She trusted Lena so completely, more than she’d ever trusted anyone. Though if last night had proven anything, it was how safe she was in trusting Lena—she’d _felt_ all that love Lena had for her and it was incredible. There was no one on Earth like Lena Luthor.

“Hey,” Lena’s gentle voice entered Kara’s thoughts. “Are you all right?”

Kara looked up and shook herself from her thoughts. “Never better,” she smiled. “What would you like to test first?”

Lena set her laptop on a nearby crystal pillar and opened it up, pulling open a spreadsheet like a good scientist. “We’ll start with yours, how about, and use that as our point of reference. Strength, speed, flying, heat vision, ice breath, X-ray vision, and fast healing. How should we test strength? Should we arm wrestle or something?”

Kara snorted and pulled a control crystal from another panel and opened a holo-display that currently read “0 Pounds.” Kara held up the small, cylindrical crystal so Lena could see it, then she squeezed it, though not even close to her full strength. The holo-display behind her shot up from zero to 17,000 pounds in about a second flat.

“Holy shit,” Lena blurted out, laughing at herself immediately after. “I sometimes take for granted how _strong_ you are. Were you even squeezing as hard as you can?”

Kara tried her best to hide her cocky grin as she handed the device to Lena. She liked impressing her Luthor. “No. But that will give you a frame of reference.”

Lena made a column on her spreadsheet labeled “Supergirl,” then another labeled “Me.” Kara giggled. Lena then took a deep breath and squeezed the device as hard as she could. They both watched in confusion as the number on the holo-display only rose to 55 pounds.

“Well that’s weird,” Lena said, her eyes narrowing at the holo-display. “I can still feel your power within me.”

“What’s average human strength?” Kara asked.

“Well average for women is around 45 pounds, 70ish for men,” Lena replied, still eying the device in her hand. “This doesn’t make sense. Why would some of my powers fade, but not others? Plus we just Joined not that long ago. I didn’t feel cold during the flight, and still don’t. Last night we did some pretty intense things that I wouldn’t have been able to do without super strength. Hmm. . . I wonder. . .” Lena trailed off, staring intently at the crystal in the palm of her hand. Her eyes narrowed and she continued to gaze at the device as though she were trying to bore a hole into it with her mind. Kara then watched in startled wonder as the numbers on the display began to rise. It started rising slowly, a few hundred pounds per second, then it spiked rapidly up to just over 10,000 pounds. Except Lena wasn’t squeezing the device; it was laying in the palm of her hand.

Both of them stood in stunned silence for several long seconds, then both burst out in unison, “Telekinesis!”

They both launched themselves at their respective screens—Lena to her laptop and Kara to the holo-display. “Okay, if your newfound super power is telekinesis, that would explain the readings on your scan I’m seeing. For reference, here’s what I look like under this scan, and here’s what you look like on the scan.”

She pointed to an image on the holo-display of her on the left and Lena on the right. Kara’s whole body was glowing bright yellow, whereas Lena’s brain was glowing a bright blue, and the rest of her body a paler blue.

“I’m assuming humans don’t normally glow blue with this interface?” Lena asked.

“Normally humans whole bodies just show as a pale grey because they don’t have super powers,” Kara replied, zooming the display in on Lena’s brain. “I suppose it makes sense your brain would be the center point of your powers since telekinesis is a power of the mind, not physical.”

“Apparently these powers you gave me are very adaptive and reactive to my needs, because I wasn’t focusing on anything other than fucking you senseless last night, and yet it somehow knew to adjust to your strength. How useful,” Lena said, giving Kara a rather ravenous look. “Your powers are so helpful and accommodating.”

Kara felt herself flush scarlet and looked away with a sheepish grin. “Well that’s good. But let’s see. Last night you said you could hear my heartbeat. Do you still have heightened senses?"

Lena’s brow furrowed in concentration and she closed her eyes. “I can,” she said slowly. “But only if I focus on it.” She typed some more notes on her laptop and Kara went back to running more scans.

They spent the next hour or so attempting other powers—freeze breath, laser vision, and X-Ray vision to no avail. She did appear to have extraordinary speed, however, if not quite as fast as Kara.

“It makes sense your powers would manifest differently than mine—you’re human and I’m Kryptonian,” Kara said, so engrossed in running in-depth scans on Lena she didn’t notice the brunette was looking at her.

“It’s probably a good thing I don’t have X-ray vision. I’d only use it to look through your clothes all day anyway,” Lena said.

Kara’s eyes widened and she pushed up her glasses (a compulsion she seemed unable to control around Lena). Kara cleared her throat, valiantly attempting to _pretend_ she wasn’t blushing furiously. “I also think, like me, you have a protective ‘aura’ of some sort, which is why you weren’t harmed during our. . .erm. . . vigorous lovemaking.”

A slow, seductive smile spread across her beautiful lips and Kara watched in helpless wonder as her devious human caught her lower lip between her teeth in a way that was just too sexy to be legal in any country.

“Study break?” Lena said in a tone so suggestive it left Kara wondering how two such seemingly innocuous words could be so gosh darn _dirty_.

Still, she wasn’t about to deny her Luthor a thing. She blazed into Lena’s arms, fusing their lips around Lena’s delighted giggle. As Kara unbuttoned Lena's coat, she had a feeling they weren't going to get much else accomplished today. Unless "accomplishments" included Olympic-worthy feats of flexibility and strength.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I'll get back to some plot eventually. X3 Also, thank you for those who commented and gave me the idea for Lena to have different super powers than Kara! We're definitely going to have some fun playing with this new paradigm for Lena. And also use her powers for very smutty purposes. Poor Kara has absolutely no idea what's coming. X3 X3


	13. Meet the In-Laws

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to preface this by saying no, I'm not bastardizing Superman so don't come after me if you're a huge fan of his. Just read through to the end and it will all come together.

It was a long, labor-intensive couple of days. And not just from all the shameless (and very enthusiastic) fucking they did in the Fortress of Solitude. After running extensive tests and scans to make sure Lena wasn’t in any danger from her newfound powers, they then spent the rest of Sunday testing the limitations of her powers through some playful wrestling that naturally devolved into vigorous fucking. Fortunately, the Fortress seemed quite well equipped to deal with super strength.

After work on Monday and Tuesday they went to Lena’s lab with some schematics for inertial dampeners they’d found in the Fortress’s database to see about making them a super-proof bed. Lena was delighted to finally get to see some of Kara’s more scientific and artistic side, and after working on it for only a few hours they had an elegant design for the headboard and bed and finished the metal frame by Monday evening. Lena made several prototypes of the inertial dampeners which Kara tested, and once Lena was satisfied they were functioning properly, they concealed the new devices within the bed frame. Kara then welded a beautiful iron headboard, they bought a very expensive, very durable memory foam mattress that didn’t have any springs that could break, and by Tuesday evening, they had a brand new bed that, with any luck, could cope with a couple of enthusiastic supers.

Exhausted from a couple of days of working (and fucking) tirelessly, they settled on the couch in Lena’s apartment when they got home Tuesday evening, carryout containers strewn on the coffee table and both in comfortable clothes. Lena was currently buried in her laptop running simulations on all the possible uses of telekinesis, and Kara was tapping away on her tablet.

“We still haven’t figured out if my powers are temporary,” Lena said suddenly, cutting through the silence.

Kara looked up and gave her an inquisitive look. “Wouldn’t we have to stop having sex to figure it out?”

Lena raised a contemplative eyebrow. “Well that just won’t do. I suppose it’s doomed to remain a mystery.”

Kara giggled. “I was teasing. We could just stop Joining during intimacy for a couple of days or something.”

Lena sighed wistfully. “I suppose. But how about we agree to start tomorrow, since we already Joined in my lab today?”

Kara grinned. “Agreed. Plus, we need to test out that fancy new bed of ours.”

Lena was about to trounce Kara’s bones and do just that when they both heard sirens begin wailing in the distance. Both of them paused and exchanged a curious glance, unsure how to proceed with this new paradigm. Lena’s first instinct was to jump into action and help, but she didn’t exactly have a super hero alter ego she could just change into.

“Maye you should—” Lena began.

“I’ll go,” Kara finished, rising off the couch. She strode to the kitchen island where her glasses had been discarded earlier. She looked back at Lena as she activated her new suit. “Maybe we can talk about things. . . well _this_ , when I get back?”

Lena rose and opened the sliding door of her balcony, offering her a gentle smile. “I’ll be here,” Lena said. As Kara passed her in the doorway, Lena caught her wrist and pulled her into a fierce kiss.

“Be careful, my love,” Lena whispered.

“Always,” Kara replied with a soft smile before leaping off the balcony and flew in the direction of the sirens.

Lena watched her red and blue blur disappear before returning inside. She crossed to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of her strongest whiskey. She suddenly realized with her newfound powers, alcohol might not affect her like it used to, but she wanted to taste the strong flavor to help her focus. She hadn’t actually put any thought yet into the implications of having super powers; she’d been a bit too swept up in all things Kara.

The question resounding in her mind since hearing those sirens was, who should she be now that she had these new powers?

She had no desire to jump into the fray as a masked vigilante, she knew that much, but it was in her nature to want to help, to make the world a better place. She just wasn’t quite sure running around in cape was quite her lane, though. Kara was a fighter, and although a Luthor would never back down from a fight, she knew a Luthor would never be what Supergirl was—a symbol of hope and peace. She also thought of the possibility of not hiding her powers from the world, though she knew she’d have to lie about how she attained them which didn’t exactly appeal to her.

Her mind wandered back to what she truly wanted—to be an inventor. When she originally took over L-Corp, it was to undo Lex’s damage and try to clear at least some of the Luthor name. But she didn’t want her life to simply be undoing Lex’s evils because that would make her life all about him and fuck him. He didn’t deserve that much of her time. If anything, these new powers were forcing her to realize she needed change in her life, big change. She’d been drifting for a long time now, she’d drifted right into being CEO. Unlike capitalistic Americans seemed to believe, being the boss of a company was not the pinnacle of “success” in her mind. She fully recognized that was a privileged opinion to have, but she wanted so much more from life than just making money for a huge company. But did she want to be a “super hero?”

Then again, could she really just stand idly by and watch Kara throw herself into danger and do nothing— _especially_ knowing she could help? As she was deeply mulling these big questions over in her mind, she suddenly heard voices coming down the hall which stopped outside her door. Normally she wouldn’t be able to hear voices in the hall because her apartment was fully sound-proofed (thank god, given all the very noisy fucking she and Kara had been doing the last couple of days), but her new super hearing heard them quite clearly.

“Don’t X-ray her apartment first!” Lena heard a female voice say. “They’re a newlywed couple and it’s the evening. You have no idea what you’ll be looking in on.”

Though thus far Lena had yet to have X-ray vision manifest as one of her powers, it didn’t take a genius to figure out who was at the door. She then heard a loud knock.

“Kara, it’s Clark,” the man said, though without her new super hearing she probably wouldn’t have heard a word. “I can hear your heartbeat, I know you’re in there. Please answer the door.”

Lena emptied her glass of whiskey and padded to her front door, doing her best not to grumble. She really wanted to test out her new bed with Kara tonight, not host uninvited in-laws. She also wasn’t really dressed for it, though fortunately her hair and makeup were still made up for work. Although, was she wearing Kara’s Columbia alumni hoodie? Well this would be an interesting first impression. She exhaled a small sigh and opened the door, offering them a look of mild surprise that they had showed up like this uninvited. “Lois, Clark,” she said in a neutral tone. “Well this is a surprise. Come in.”

Lena turned and went back to the kitchen island and poured herself another glass of whiskey. She didn’t have anything particularly nice to say to Clark (given her strong opinions about him abandoning Kara with the Danvers), and she especially didn’t want to talk to him without Kara present.

“Can I get you a drink? I have just about anything you could want. Except alien alcohol. Although it occurs to me I should probably add some to my liquor cabinet,” Lena said.

“I’d love a glass of wine,” Lois offered with a friendly smile.

“White or red?” Lena asked, opening her wine cabinet.

“I’m partial to a good shiraz, if you have one,” Lois replied.

“Where’s Kara?” Clark demanded as Lena pulled a bottle from the cupboard.

“Oh she answered a siren,” Lena replied. “You’re welcome to go join her if you’d like.”

Lois and Clark exchanged a meaningful glance. “What exactly does that mean?” Clark asked.

Lena raised an eyebrow. “Has Kara not talked to you since we got married?”

“No, that’s why I’m here,” Clark answered, and Lena suddenly saw all that Kryptonian pride and steel radiating from him. “I want to know exactly what your intentions are with my cousin. Specifically why a Luthor such as yourself has taken such a keen interest in your assistant.”

“And where was all this ‘familial’ concern when Kara landed on this planet?” Lena shot back. She knew she really shouldn’t have gone there, but the accusation in his voice about her Luthor name got under her skin a little too quickly. “And yes I know she’s Supergirl and you’re Superman, let’s not pretend, shall we?”

“Okay, Clark how about you go and find Kara and help her out?” Lois (mercifully) interjected. “Lena and I will be here when you get back and we can all have a calm, adult conversation, all right?”

Lena saw a flash of stubbornness in his face, but then she saw that familiar Kryptonian love win out. “All right,” he said. He kissed her cheek before blasting off out the balcony door at super speed.

“I’m not going to be the kind of wife who apologizes for my husband’s poor behavior, but I will make him do it when he gets back,” Lois said, offering Lena another gentle smile. “He had a very rough go of it with your brother—we’ve lost count of the number of times Lex has almost killed him with kryptonite—and well, I don’t think that wound is going to heal any time soon.”

“Yes, it’s a gift that keeps on giving, my brother’s endless well of wrongdoings,” Lena said bitterly and emptied her glass of whiskey in one long gulp. “So why did you come here? Why plan an ambush like this? Wanted to catch us unawares so we’d be more likely to be forthright?”

Lois’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Yes, actually,” she admitted.

Lena let out a small laugh at Lois’s surprising honesty. “Well then ask away.”

“Why did you get married so quickly? Rashness doesn’t exactly fit your profile. Well, Kara’s, maybe. But not yours,” Lois said.

“Honestly?” Lena said, and for the first time since all this started, she actually felt embarrassed. She’d felt everything from devastation to hesitant hope since it all began, though now that she was about to come clean with how it happened, it _was_ rather embarrassing. “We got drunk in Vegas. Well. . . I got drunk. I don’t know how Kara got drunk. Can Kryptonians get drunk? Anyway, drunk us stumbled our way right into some stupid Vegas chapel. Neither of us can even remember it.”

A slow, amused smile spread across Lois’s lips. “I see.”

“And then we fell in love, which is so much more surprising than the ridiculous circumstances under which we got married. Kara Zor-El loves me. It’s not so surprising I fell in love with her—she’s a beautiful Kryptonian goddess. But me? I haven’t the faintest idea how I pulled this one off,” Lena said, surprising herself with her own candor. Lois was easy to talk to, which she supposed was but one reason why Lois was such a good investigative journalist.

“I know the feeling,” Lois agreed. “Kryptonians love incredibly deeply. More deeply than we humans, I think.”

Lena poured herself another shot of whiskey and swirled the contents, giving Lois a contemplative look. “Can I ask you something?”

“Shoot,” Lois replied.

“I know this is probably wildly inappropriate and we literally just met and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want. But has Clark ever. . . has he ever glowed during intimacy?” Lena asked. “You are quite literally the only other person I know who has slept with a Kryptonian, so I don’t have anyone else to talk to about this.”

“Glowed?” Lois echoed with an inquisitive look.

“Yeah, you know, like has his skin ever glowed like a soft lamp kind of?” Lena replied.

“No, never. Why?” Lois asked, the curiosity in her face deepening.

“Fascinating. . .” Lena murmured, more to herself than Lois. “He must not have learned it since he arrived here as a baby. Kara said it was innate, but apparently it’s also a learned ability.”

“Kara glows during sex?” Lois asked, her face now taking on a hint of confusion with her curiosity.

“I mean they _are_ aliens, it shouldn’t be so surprising that they would have a different way of doing things,” Lena said, suddenly feeling defensive of Kara.

“Why do you ask?” Lois asked. “Does Kara. . . glow?”

“Oh, um—” Lena started but she was cut off by two caped Kryptonians blew in through the balcony.

“And you didn’t think it worth mentioning that you married a _Luthor_?” Clark demanded, his voice raised and his hands on his hips in a very Superman sort of way. “Or that your new ‘wife’s’ _mother_ tried to _kill_ you?”

“You’ve never shown interest in anything I ever do or tell me anything,” Kara shot back. “So why should I bother telling you anything?”

Lena felt a familiar flare of dislike for Clark, a feeling she didn’t particularly like given her family history, but his tendency to turn his back on Kara did little to put him in her good graces. Even knowing he was already Superman when Kara came to Earth didn’t excuse his behavior in her eyes. The man literally had super speed and yet somehow couldn’t find the time to take care of literally his only other living relative in the known universe? She imagined his reasoning was that he wanted to give her the same human experience he had growing up, except Kara showed no inclination to want to be human (blend in, sure. But _be_ human? No). Maybe that’s what frightened him. He didn’t want such a real reminder of his Kryptonian heritage so close to him because it was easier to just forget Krypton ever existed.

“Whoa, okay Clark. We came here to get her side of the story, so let her tell it,” Lois interjected, and Lena watched Clark deflate a little. Lena made an amused mental note that he was completely whipped.

He sighed then changed back into his regular clothes at super speed. “I’m sorry,” he said, softening ever so slightly. “I just don’t know why you didn’t tell me and I’m worried about you.”

Kara reached up and flipped off her super suit which turned back into her glasses, and Lena felt a thrill of arrogance at the small, smug grin on Kara’s lips that clearly said to him, “my suit’s better.”

Clark seemed to agree. “Where did you get that suit?” he asked, his eyes wide as he peered at her glasses.

“Lena made it for me,” Kara replied, the brag in her tone not particularly masked well.

“I thought they already knew,” Lena said suddenly. “Didn’t you say Lois was one of the potential reporters to interview us?”

Lois, Clark, and Kara all looked at Lena, then Kara’s face turned sheepish. “I just asked her if she wanted a puff piece story, I never told her the specifics because we went with Miss Grant instead,” she admitted.

“You chose Cat Grant over _Lois_?” Clark demanded.

“Cat was local and I didn’t want to subject either Lois or Lena to a bunch of travelling. Now are you going to let me tell you what happened or not? It’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” Kara asked.

“Yes. Tell me, Kara, under what circumstances did you marry a Luthor and tell her you’re Supergirl in the span of just a couple of months since starting to work for her?” he asked in what Lena felt was a rhetorical question.

“The abridged version of events is, we went to Vegas on a business trip, had some drinks to blow off steam because it was a very stressful trip, had one too many and thought it would be a fun adventure to elope in true Vegas style (though neither of us actually remembers making that decision). Anyway, we decided—well, _I_ decided, as her assistant—for the sake of Lena’s reputation we would just stay married for a while instead of getting an annulment because some paparazzi saw us leave the chapel. But then we fell in love and neither of us asked for any of this to happen, but it did, and I _trust_ her, Kal,” Kara said, crossing to Lena. She took one of the brunette’s hands and laced their fingers. “And I would hope my judge of character means something to you, despite the fact that you’ve never bothered to get to know me.”

Clark ran a hand through his thick black hair in agitation. “No offense, Kara, but Luthors have tricked us before. How do you _know_ she’s trustworthy?”

Lena was about to point out she was sitting _right here_ for fuck’s sake, but Kara said, “Because I’ve Joined with her, Kal. And if you cared even one iota about your Kryptonian heritage, that would mean something to you!”

There was a tense silence as Clark looked at her with wide, mortified eyes. “You _Joined_ with her? How could you be so _reckless_ , Kara!” he said, his voice nearly raised to shouting now.

“I don’t know, maybe because I didn’t have you around to teach me _not_ to be reckless!” Kara fired back, her cheeks now flushed with fury.

“Can I _say_ something here?” Lena interjected, setting her glass down on the granite counter so hard that it shattered loudly. Everyone looked down at the broken glass then at Lena. Lena sighed. “Fuck,” she muttered, scooping up the broken glass and threw it in the garbage. It was only a little consolation that she didn’t cut herself this time. She then rounded on Clark. “Clark, I can certainly understand you having your doubts about me, given that I share blood with Lex, but Superman or not, you don’t get to come into _our_ home and make your assumptions and judgments of Kara behaving like a Kryptonian because, unlike her, _you_ can’t miss what you never had. You don’t know, you don’t have any _idea_ the depth of her pain. But I do because, unlike you, I have Joined with her, and I’ve _felt_ her pain. And it’s so real, it burns hot and searing like the sun, and the only reason I’ve been able to take all that burning pain when we Join is because deeper and stronger than that pain is her love. That love I surely don’t deserve, but that I would die for, I’d do _anything_ for, and that I want to spend the rest of my life proving I’m _worthy_ of.”

It wasn’t until she finished speaking that she realized her eyes were stinging with tears. Everyone was looking at her and where was her damn glass of whiskey? She turned from all the eyes upon her and moved to a cupboard with all her glasses and grabbed another one out. She was about to fumble with pouring another drink when suddenly Kara’s strong arms were wrapped around in a fierce embrace. Lena melted into her lover’s arms, her hands sliding up Kara’s back as she buried her face in Kara’s shoulder. She really didn’t want to cry in front of Lois and Clark, and it was through sheer force of will alone that she didn’t.

“I’m sorry,” Kara whispered. “I’m sorry. I’ll send them away. I love you, Lena, and _you’re_ my top priority, not him.”

“No,” Lena said, taking a shaky breath before pulling back. “I refuse to be the Luthor that comes between you two.” She turned to Clark and gave him a tired look. “What’s it going to take for you to believe I’m not like my brother? Would Joining with me do it?”

“It’s not safe for Kryptonians to Join with humans under a yellow sun,” Clark replied. “Our powers could overwhelm you. I’m amazed you survived the encounter, to be honest.”

“It _is_ safe,” Kara shot back. “I researched it in the Fortress years ago. Their nervous systems can handle it. Our powers are just transferred temporarily through the Joining because of the yellow sun, that’s all. At least, we think it’s temporary. The Fortress simulations didn’t predict that part, but Joining with them is safe.”

“You gave a Luthor _super powers_?!” Clark burst out, this time a full on shout. “What the f—!”

Lois put her hand on his arm and Lena was surprised when he actually stopped shouting and looked at her instead, his face full of concern. Lena made another mental note that Kryptonians seemed to enjoy being whipped. Which was adorable.

“Clark, stop,” Lois said, her tone gentle but firm. “I don’t think you’re hearing them. If I’m understanding this ‘Joining’ thing correctly—which, Clark we’re going to have a discussion later about why you’ve never told me about this and why we’ve never done it—it’s some kind of innate energy exchange ability between Kryptonians. Kara Joined with Lena because she _needs_ that part of her life back, that part of her life that she had on Krypton, but doesn’t have here on Earth. In no small part due to the fact that you’ve never Joined with her, that you’ve never given her the support she needed to adjust to life on Earth. I’m not saying you’re to blame for her Joining with Lena, but you have played a part in this whether you like it or not because you’ve chosen to turn your back on your Kryptonian heritage without even discussing it with her. And it’s time the two of you faced this if you want a healthy relationship going forward.”

Lena made another mental note that she really liked Lois. “I’m inclined to agree with Lois, if my opinion counts for anything here,” Lena said, biting back a grin as Kara gave her a loving look that severely suggested that her Kryptonian was just as whipped as Clark.

“You never told me you wanted to Join with me, and I didn’t really know how,” Clark said, his eyes softening as he looked at Kara.

“You never gave me the chance!” Kara exclaimed, her face betraying the deep hurt he had caused her. Lena felt an ache of protectiveness for Kara which compelled her to take Kara’s hand in hers, to offer her this small show of support at least. “You barely even spoke to me before dumping me with the Danvers then flew off in a dramatic flurry. Every time I’ve ever brought up Krypton you act as though it’s this dark, shameful secret to be hidden and ignored, not celebrated. You’re Kryptonian, Kal, you’re _Kryptonian_ and I just want you to _acknowledge_ that for once in your life, just this _once_ Kal!”

Clark looked quite defeated for the Man of Steel. “You’re right, I’m sorry Kara,” he said, his voice significantly calmer. “I guess I just wanted you to give the same wonderful experience I had here on Earth.”

“No, you wanted me to be _you_ ,” Kara countered, looking away from him and Lena could see angry tears in Kara’s eyes. “You wanted me to be just as human as you because that was so much easier than suddenly inheriting a 13-year-old Kryptonian girl. A burden, by the way, that at only thirteen years old I was prepared to take on! I was going to take care of and _raise_ you when I came to this planet, Kal! Do you know how much it _hurt_ me that you didn’t even want me? Even being your last living link to Krypton, and you _still_ didn’t want me? Do you know how hard it’s been not to have endless self-loathing for that? If not even Superman could love me, who could?” Now Kara was shouting, angry tears streaming down her face.

Clark’s eyes flickered to Lena and she saw genuine shame for the first time, though the reason for shame had righteous fury boiling up inside her. “If you think for a second that’s what ‘drove her into the arms of a Luthor,’ I swear to god, Clark, get out of here and don’t ever come back,” Lena spat before she could think the better of it.

“No, that’s not what I was thinking at all,” Clark said quickly. “For so long I thought I _was_ human, _believed_ I was human growing up. It wasn’t until I hit puberty that the Kents even told me I was Kryptonian when my powers started to manifest. I was terrified when I found out. I think that fear never really left me, despite taking on the mantle of Superman.” He then held out his hand to Kara, surprising everyone in the room. “I know this is fifteen years too late, but Join with me, Kara? Teach me?”

Kara looked at him with such a mixture of emotions on her face, ranging from hope to mistrust to excitement to fear, that it broke Lena’s heart all over again. Slowly releasing Lena’s hand, Kara moved to Clark and took both his hands in hers. Closing their eyes, they rested their foreheads together and Kara began to glow.

At first it was only her, but slowly he began to as well without a word being said, though Lena suspected it had something to do with the fact that she was sending him the information on how to do it through the Joining somehow. The glow grew and grew until it was almost too bright to look upon. Lena almost felt as though she shouldn’t be present for such a moment of familial intimacy, but they hadn’t been asked to leave. Still, she averted her eyes, fiddling with her empty glass. The sight was touching, the two of them reconnecting at long last, but she still felt a lot of bitterness towards Clark that wasn’t going to go away from one act of generosity towards Kara. But for now at least, she would accept it as a step in the right direction.

When they pulled back, both of them looked different somehow, and they were looking at each other with such love, tenderness, and forgiveness that it made it difficult for Lena to stay angry at Clark at all. Damn these Kryptonians and their innate ability to soften Lena’s cold heart.

“I didn’t know,” Clark said barely above a whisper. “I’m so sorry Kara. I didn’t know.”

They stood for quite some time like this, exchanging unspoken thoughts and emotions, and eventually Lena decided to give them some space. She beckoned to Lois and led her to the second room of her penthouse which she’d set up as a TV den. She didn’t watch much TV, but she liked the coziness of a den when she did.

Lois took a sip of wine while looking closely at Lena. “So you have her powers now?”

“Is this on or off the record?” Lena asked.

Lois gave her a reassuring smile. “Most things concerning the private lives of those two is off limits, except that which we agree I can write about. I’m just asking as a friend. And as someone who’s very interested in Joining with Clark, because your experience sounds amazing.”

“Oh god. . . it’s transcendent,” Lena said, a dreamy smile curving her lips. Her mind wandered to all the times it had occurred thus far and felt her cheeks flush. She cleared her throat. “Sorry, you asked me about my powers. Thus far they’ve actually manifested differently than Kara’s. I have heightened senses like her, and I appear to have her protective ‘aura,’ but rather than super strength, I seem to have manifested telekinesis.”

“Really? Fascinating! So their powers manifest perhaps based on DNA. I wonder if mine would manifest the same way as yours or differently,” Lois said, her eyes clouding over in thought.

Lena raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Do you really think Clark will actually Join with you? Especially knowing it could give you powers? I’m not sure Kara would have if she’d have known this outcome. Though I’m not sure she’d choose to undo it if she could. There is something very freeing for both of us being equals like this because she doesn’t have to control herself so much or fear hurting me. I’ve felt how much it thrills her when we Join.”

“What’s it like?” Lois asked. “If that’s not too personal. Sorry, I’m a reporter; being overly nosy is what I do.”

Lena exhaled a soft laugh. “It’s okay. It’s. . . I don’t know if I can describe it. When we Join, I can feel her love and desire, her pleasure but also her pain. It’s so much more intimate than anything I could have imagined, and more beautiful than anything I thought I could ever experience. I didn’t even know what ‘making love’ was until Kara. God. . . I love her so much, Lois.”

“Can I have your info? I want to be your friend. And definitely exchange notes. I can’t talk to anyone about anything Kryptonian except Clark, and he doesn’t talk about it,” Lois said, pulling out her phone. “Cell phone and personal email?”

Lois opened a contact screen and offered her phone to Lena. She accepted the phone and entered her info, unable to stop a small grin. “Friends with the infamous Lois Lane? I’m flattered.”

“Yes, well, we girls with buff alien spouses gotta stick together,” Lois said with a wink.

Lena giggled just as Kara and Clark appeared in the doorway. “Sorry to have interrupted your evening, Lena. Thank you for receiving us with such grace, and I’m sorry for assuming the worst of you. I shouldn’t have done that,” Clark said, his face full of genuine remorse.

Lois and Lena rose from the couch and Lena offered him a soft smile. “Apology accepted. I believe we have a game night tomorrow night we’re hosting. We’d love it if you two came. I trust the travel distance won’t be too difficult?”

“We’d love to,” Lois said and hugged Lena to the Luthor’s surprise. And then suddenly all three of them were hugging her. Lena had never been hugged by three people before, but she decided really liked this. Maybe Clark wasn’t so bad after all, if only for his taste in women.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know about y'all, but I really feel like the series should have had a scene like this, where Kara confronts him about abandoning her. Honestly, I started writing this chapter because I really wanted to see a scene where Lena asks Lois about super sex with Clark and this chapter just sort of happened. XD But don't worry we'll get back to smutty mcsmut smut next chapter. X3 X3


	14. Control

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for nothing. Plot is overrated. X3  
> Also warning for rough sex? Idk lol I said I wasn't giving warnings anymore lol. This fic is explicit, read at work at your own peril. X3

They were quiet as they got ready for bed after Lois and Kal left. Kara was feeling the sting of her fight with Kal, and Lena seemed willing to give her space. But it wasn’t space Kara wanted. She wanted to be so close to Lena that the lines between them blurred, she wanted to drown herself in feeling Lena’s love and emotions washing over like a soothing balm.

It was healing, being able to Join with Kal, to have him feel the depth of her pain, to _finally_ have his love and understanding. It was the only thing she’d ever wanted from him. They still had a long way to go towards fully healing, but it was definitely a step in the right direction. And it was in no small part due to the power duo that apparently was Lois and Lena, a thought that made the Kryptonian grin.

As Kara climbed into their new fancy bed, she felt a pang of regret they hadn’t been able to test it yet, but Kal’s arrival had thrown off their whole evening. She watched Lena climb in next to her, her eyes drifting to the low-cut neckline of Lena’s satin pajama top.

“Are you all right?” Lena asked, running her fingertips along Kara’s arm as she settled in the bed next to her. “I know facing Clark like that, especially when you hadn’t prepared for it or chosen to have that argument, couldn’t have been easy.”

Kara leaned her head back against the new headboard as she gazed at Lena, a deep feeling of guilt trying to take hold of her heart. “You’ve felt my pain when we Join?” she asked softly.

“Kara,” Lena exhaled her name like a loving sigh, her soft eyes radiating tenderness. “Yes. I feel all of it, I feel all of _you_. But don’t you dare feel guilty for that. Because feeling all of you is the most beautiful gift I could ever have hoped to be given. I know you now in a way I’ve never known anyone, and that is a blessing far beyond anything I ever thought I could receive.”

“I feel yours too, you know,” Kara whispered back, slipping her hand in Lena’s and brought it to her lips, placing a soft kiss on it. “But I also feel your strength and resilience and all of it, all of _you_ is so beautiful, Lena.”

Lena blushed and looked away, but Kara slid her hand up to Lena’s wrist and pulled the brunette to her, bringing their lips together in a soft kiss. She kept tugging on Lena’s wrist, encouraging her lover closer. Lena shifted and straddled Kara’s hips, her soft breasts pressing against Kara’s, and those wonderful legs encompassed Kara’s thighs. Kara tilted her head back to deepen the kiss, and Lena accepted the invitation, her tongue plunging into Kara’s mouth until they were both groaning softly against the other’s lips. Lena’s fingers found Kara’s hair and entangled in thick blonde curls while Kara’s fingertips roamed up Lena’s back, pulling her beautiful human closer still. Lena’s hands drifted down Kara’s shoulders and arms, then grasped the hem of Kara’s T-shirt.

“Is this okay?” Lena whispered around their kiss as she slowly lifted Kara’s shirt.

Kara lifted her arms in response, only pulling away from their kiss so Lena could pull her shirt over her head. “More than okay,” she replied, making quick work of the buttons on Lena’s pajama top. She groaned softly as her hands brushed Lena’s breasts, those _perfect_ breasts, that simple action alone making the pain of the day melt away. “I want you, I _need_ this.”

They wiggled out of their pajama bottoms, then Lena ran her hands up Kara’s breasts and neck to tangle in her hair while kissing her cheek. “Tell me what you need, my love,” she whispered in Kara’s ear, nibbling on her earlobe. “I’m here.”

Kara’s eyes rolled shut with a soft groan as Lena ran her tongue just under Kara’s ear. She didn’t realize until this very moment that her ears were an erogenous zone, but Lena had a knack of turning most parts of Kara aflame. “I want to be inside you,” Kara blurted out, her voice already deep and breathless.

Lena pulled back from nipping Kara’s neck. “God, I want you inside me, too. Can we. . . can we try a more adult invention I made a while ago?”

Kara gave her an inquisitive look. “Invention?”

Lena slid off her lap and crossed to her dresser. She pulled out a cloth bag and a bottle of lube then returned to Kara’s lap. “When I first started dating women, the thing I always wanted to experience was being inside, _feeling_ it when I’m inside. Such an adult toy didn’t exist, so I invented one. I’ve never used this particular one with a partner, but it’s my best prototype yet.” Lena pulled a phallic shaped silicon toy from the cloth bag and showed it to Kara. One end looked more or less like a normal dildo (with some cleverly placed ridges along the shaft), but the other end curved in what Kara assumed was the part that went inside her, since there were no straps. Kara couldn’t stop a soft blush from rising in her cheeks, but she also had a feeling whatever was about to happen was going to be amazing.

“Is this okay? We don’t have to do this tonight if you’re not in the mood,” Lena said, pulling back ever so slightly. “Or ever, if this isn’t your thing.”

Kara slid her hand up Lena’s arm and pulled her back in for a slow, deep kiss. When she pulled back, she reveled in the sight of Lena’s eyes darkened with desire, her lips swollen and red from fevered kisses. It was breathtaking. “I’ve never used adult toys before,” Kara admitted. “But anything involving you is my thing. You’ll just need to show me how it works.”

Lena withdrew a small remote which had a few buttons and a dial on it that appeared to control the vibration level of the toy. “Where would you like me?” Kara asked, hoping the question conveyed to Lena that she was in complete control, that her pleasure and comfort came first since Lena was the one receiving.

“Right where you are,” Lena replied. She applied some lube to the curved end, then lowered it between Kara’s legs, teasing the giver end of it against Kara’s entrance. “Are you ready?” Lena asked, slight concern rippling through her eyes.

Kara smiled and covered Lena’s hand holding the toy and guided it all the way inside her in a smooth glide, the base of it pressing up against her clit. “I’m good,” Kara replied. “How does it stay in without a strap, though?”

Lena took the remote back and pressed the small “on” button. Kara felt it expand inside her, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. She then felt the pressure plate encompass her clit in a way she’d never experienced before. She peered at it curiously while Lena squirted a generous amount of lube on her hand then lowered it so it was hovering just above the toy. “Are you ready? This can be a little intense the first time. Women have a lot more nerve endings per square centimeter on their clitoris then men have on their penises, so the experience is significantly more intense for women than men. Sorry to get all clinical,” Lena added with a small smile.

Kara nodded once, her heartbeat quickening in anticipation as she watched Lena’s slender fingers enclose around the head of the toy then moved down along the shaft in a powerful stroke. Kara was helpless to stop a surprised groan from escaping her lips, her head falling back on the headboard. She felt every bit of that stroke on her clit, and the harsh pleasure of it was overwhelming. Somewhere in the back of her mind she realized it must have sensory transmitters, but the thought was soon forgotten as Lena stroked the length of the toy again.

“Lena. . .!” Kara gasped out, fisting the sheets in her strong hands in a helpless attempt to control the desire to claim Lena right then and there.

“ _Fuck_ , you’re so beautiful Kara,” Lena breathed, surging forward to fuse their lips once again. The hungry, messy kiss was almost enough to ground Kara, except that hand of Lena’s was still stroking the length of the marvelous and agonizingly pleasurable invention between her legs.

Kara whimpered into the kiss, quite unable to form words with those clever, slender fingers doing what they were doing to her. All she could do was writhe beneath her lover and try desperately not to give in to the carnal desire building inside her with each tantalizing stroke. When Lena removed her hand Kara nearly cried out in desperation, but then she felt Lena line up her entrance with the tip of the toy, felt Lena flip on the vibrating feature, felt it dip into her slick folds and Kara’s cry turned into a strangled groan. Every muscle in Kara’s body tensed, her fingertips digging into Lena’s thighs with bruising force as she waited to be released from this torment, to be allowed inside. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was grateful Lena had powers, otherwise her grip on her lover’s thighs would have certainly injured her.

And then suddenly her full length was inside Lena’s warm, wet walls as the brunette drove her hips down, bringing their pelvises together in a merciless thrust. Both of them groaned around their kiss, though Kara’s had an edge of desperation that sounded more like a plea. It was taking all her self-control not to go wild, to take everything Lena had to give and more. Seeming to sense this, Lena slowly lifted her hips, so _agonizingly_ slowly, then slammed back down with such force they both felt the inertial dampeners kick in, which was likely the only reason the bed didn’t end up halfway through the floor.

“You don’t have to control yourself, Kara,” Lena whispered, her beautiful eyes gazing at Kara with infinite love and desire. “I can take it, remember? I’m here, take me, take what you need. I _want_ you to _destroy_ me.”

If Kara had been expecting the intensity of the stimuli, if she weren’t already emotionally raw from what she went through earlier with Clark, she might have been able to put more thought into the matter. As it was, feeling Lena’s warm, wet walls closing around her length at a tormenting pace pushed her over edge of control. She didn’t even want to control herself. She wanted to claim Lena over and over until all thought, all of reality melted away into nothing but the pleasure of fucking Lena Luthor. With a ravenous growl, she was suddenly on top of Lena and plunged into her again with a brutal thrust, the inertial dampeners once again adjusting to the powerful force of Kara’s hips. She felt Lena’s legs wrap around her waist, felt her fingernails dig mercilessly into her back, neither of which helped Kara regain control of herself. Planting her hands on either side of Lena, she started a merciless, harsh rhythm, her world reduced to intense pleasure and sensations. The feeling of Lena’s naked body writhing and bucking up into her, the sound of her intoxicating groans with each unforgiving thrust of Kara’s hips, had Kara’s head swimming with lust and need, need to claim every inch of the incredible woman beneath her.

“Lena. . .!” she gasped out, her head falling into the pillow next to Lena’s face.

“Join with me,” Lena rasped in response, her voice just as breathless.

The words barely escaped Lena’s lips before Kara was glowing, greedily latching onto the pleasure Lena was feeling from being filled by the thick, vibrating toy over and over. Just as they exchanged pleasure, the feeling of Lena’s sheer delight at Kara taking her, _claiming_ her with such unrestrained abandon washed over her, causing Kara to let go of whatever shred of control she still had left. For the first time in her life she let go and allowed herself this moment of selfishness, driving mercilessly into Lena’s clinging walls.

It was all so much, so fast, so pleasurable that the pain of her confrontation with Clark faded away, replaced by nothing but the bliss of Lena’s inner walls drawing pleasure from her the likes of which she’d never known. Without bothering to draw it out, Kara threw her head back and cried out her lover’s name as she came deep within Lena, her entire body shuddering in agonized ecstasy. Lena fell right with her, and Kara felt Lena come _hard_ around the length of the toy, her inner walls fluttering wildly with contractions. Rather than satisfying her hunger, it only fueled Kara’s lust, and she could feel how desperately Lena wanted her deeper, harder, _more_.

No sooner had the first climax finished rippling through them, then Kara withdrew and flipped Lena over on her stomach. Lena let out a piteous moan at being emptied in the middle of aftershocks, the echo of which Kara felt and winced sympathetically. But it was quickly forgotten as Kara roughly lifted Lena’s hips off the bed and plunged back inside her, burying herself until their pelvises were pressed together. Both of them cried out from feeling the other’s pleasure from the action, the lines of whose pleasure was whose blurred so much Kara scarcely knew who was bent over whom any longer. All she knew was movement, she had to fill Lena as deeply and completely as she could, she had to find that agonizingly sweet spot within Lena to make her come, for the evidence of Lena’s pleasure and love to cover her length and thighs. The air around them filled with the sounds of their ravenous hunger being sated as Kara slammed into Lena over and over, latching onto her shoulder in a harsh bite.

Another wave of Lena’s lust and thrill of being fucked like this, in a way so lacking in inhibitions and shame or control, had Kara climbing closer and closer to the precipice again with precious few thrusts. Kara had never felt more free in her life, never felt safer to lose that tight control over herself, and that was almost as arousing as entering Lena in such a beautiful (and perhaps very _dirty_ ) way.

After only a few more driving thrusts of her hips, she felt inevitability building within her, trying desperately to claw its way out. Through their Joined connection she felt how far gone Lena was, though she felt apprehension suddenly within Lena, a slight hesitance that what they were currently doing now, how deep Kara was driving into her G-spot was going to cause a reaction that Kara was perhaps not ready for. Just the idea that she could make Lena come around her like this was so thrilling, the image alone very nearly pushed her over the edge.

“Please, Lena,” Kara gasped out, somehow finding words, and sent through a powerful wave of reassurance and arousal at the idea through the Joining. “Oh Rao, please come around me. . .!”

It was all the reassurance Lena needed. Her entire body arched and she threw her head back with a cry of complete and utter abandoned as release at last cascaded through them. Kara plummeted in one last time before Lena released control. She felt Lena come in a rush of hot liquid that surrounded her length and jetted out down both of their thighs. The sensation of it, the pleasure, the mind-numbing ecstasy of it had Kara drowning, losing herself in it. She came deep within Lena’s tight walls, her entire body trembling with violent spasms of aftershocks.

They had no idea how long this went on before they at last collapsed in unison, both sated and spent in a way they’d never experienced before. Kara managed to turn off the vibrating toy, but currently lacked the will to leave Lena just yet as they lay there trying to catch their breath. She tightened her arms around Lena, powerful possessiveness suddenly overtaking her, the feeling of which transferred through the Joining which Kara was still maintaining. She felt Lena’s thrill of Kara’s possessiveness, felt how very safe and loved she felt at being so thoroughly claimed. Kara lifted her head and sprinkled soft kisses and whispered “I love yous” along Lena’s shoulders and back as the haze of their afterglow and Joining faded.

“I’ll be right back,” Kara said after a time, lifting her hips and withdrew the toy from the two of them. Lena let out a soft moan of complaint into the pillow in which her face was buried, and Kara nuzzled into Lena’s cheek and gave her a reassuring kiss before climbing off the bed. She crossed to the bathroom and set the toy next to the sink before turning on the hot water, using a washcloth to wipe off the front of her thighs. She then pulled a hand towel from Lena’s linen closet, soaked it in hot water, and rang it out before returning to the bed. Gently rolling Lena over, she used the damp towel to wipe off the back of Lena’s thighs, then placed the warm towel between her legs. She softly massaged the steaming towel against Lena’s swollen clit and folds, and Lena melted into the bed with a soft sigh of enjoyment.

“How are you feeling?” Kara asked softly.

“Very loved. How did you know this is just what I needed?” she asked, reaching up and stroked Kara’s cheek, her eyes radiating love and tenderness.

“I may have cheated. I could tell you felt a little raw through the Joining,” Kara replied, looking away a little sheepishly.

“If you mean well fucked, then yes. I am definitely that,” Lena said with a soft grin before pulling Kara in for a gentle kiss. “But don’t feel bad about that. This was my idea if you recall, and god. . . that was the single sexiest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. I’m not even sore, thanks to these powers of yours. Just feeling pleasantly well fucked.”

“I’ve never lost control like that. But Rao. . . I _needed_ that so much. How did you know?”

“Just a guess,” Lena replied, placing a gentle kiss to her cheek. “How are _you_ feeling?”

“Very loved,” Kara replied with a gentle smile of her own. She snuggled closer to Lena and ran a hand through Lena’s thick, silky hair. “Thank you for tonight. You didn’t have to let Lois and Clark in, but you did, and you defended me, and you invited him into your life even though I know that wasn’t easy for you. And then you gave me this, you freed me from this tight control I’ve had to exert my entire life since arriving on this world. Rao, Lena. . . Do you know, do you have any _idea_ how _much_ that means to me? I love you, Lena. So much it. . . it frightens me sometimes.”

“But it was you who freed me,” Lena said, gently tilting Kara’s cheek so their eyes locked. “You’ve seen the darkest corners of me and yet you still love me. Something I wouldn’t even believe if I hadn’t _felt_ your love. I’ve never allowed a partner to do what you just did, I’ve never come _close_ to wanting to.”

Kara thought about that for a moment. “Which part?”

“All of it,” Lena replied. “What few men I’ve been with I never allowed on top of me, I always either rode them or we stood during sex. And what women I’ve been with, I’m always top. I’ve never been able to surrender, but you? God, Kara, _you_. . . I love you, Kara. So fucking much it scares me, too.”

Kara tossed the towel in the general direction of the bathroom, pulled the blankets over them, and snuggled into Lena. She kissed Lena’s temple, and when she pulled back, Kara had a very wide smile on her lips. “Then we can be scared together, because that makes it much less scary, doesn’t it?”

Lena smiled and turned off the lamps on the nightstands with her new found telekinetic powers. “It really does,” she agreed, settling deeply into Kara’s arms.

As they drifted off to sleep, Kara couldn’t help but feel a thrill of cocky delight that she was the only person who had gotten the incredible Lena Luthor to bend for her, to surrender to her. She fully recognized she had also more than surrendered to Lena, but still. She loved that this was theirs and theirs alone. She also very much enjoyed the idea of Lena topping her sometime soon, because the idea of being bent over by Lena Luthor was a special kind of heaven.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay for magic science dildos! XD XD I couldn't resist cuz. . . well I'm a perv what can I say. X3 Also, I thought about making this a longer chapter that involved plot, but sometimes it's nice for love scenes to stand alone, because then you can go back and read your favorite parts without having to sift through 7 thousand words lol. Anyhoot, hopefully you all liked the magic science dildo. This fandom is a bit different than the Mass Effect fandom, so just gauging the waters. ^_^ Happy Christmahannukwanzadays! And Happy Holidays for anyone who doesn't celebrate any of those. XD


	15. Weakness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully posting a chapter right before Christmas isn't a bad time for y'all to be able to read it, but I wanted to get one last chapter in before the new year. Happy Holidays! ^_^

Lena wasn’t typically a fan of Wednesdays because it meant her week was only half over, but thus far hers was going exceptionally well. Kara and Lena had broken their “no kissing at work” rule. And since they had, Lena decided what the hell, why not break it in style? and laid Kara down on her desk and buried her face between her legs for a good twenty minutes. She tested poor Kara’s ability to orgasm silently by teasing three of them out of her Kryptonian, licking her good and clean afterwards. Kara got even about an hour later by spinning Lena’s office chair as Lena was buried in work and put her head under Lena’s skirt. She proceeded to devour Lena in possibly the hottest oral she’d ever had in her life. Kara also tested the limits of Lena’s ability to be silent, managing to draw soft whimpers from Lena that almost turned to loud groans had she not bitten her lower lip with tremendous force.

After all that, they only managed to get a little bit of work done before Kara had to dash off to answer a siren call, leaving Lena alone in her office. She was currently wearing what was probably a very goofy (and perhaps a little smug) grin as she scrolled through a long, boring report when she received a new email alert. Seeing that it was from Lois, she opened it, pleasantly surprised to hear from the reporter so soon. It read:

_Dear Lena,_

_Oh my. So Clark and I Joined last night. I have notes. We definitely need to talk about this tonight at game night. Look forward to seeing you!_

_~Lois~_

Grinning, Lena sent a quick reply saying she couldn’t wait before going back to the dull report she’d been reading. Just as she was sure it couldn’t get any more boring, her phone suddenly buzzed. She glanced at the name and when she saw “unknown caller,” she answered with a scowl.

“Mother,” she said brusquely.

“You know, it really didn’t take much to figure it out. Although that synthetic kryptonite I planted at your little gala didn’t quite have the effect I wanted of killing Supergirl, it did make her careless. A camera caught her deactivating her suit—a suit I assume you made her—and lo and behold, she became the one and only Kara Danvers. I could almost forgive that this whole marriage thing was just a business maneuver. What I can’t forgive is that you _knowingly_ married Supergirl. You’ve given me no choice, Lena.”

Lena’s mind raced with a possible answer when she suddenly heard a terrible scream through the phone.

“Kara!” Lena nearly screamed herself, rising from her chair so fast it crashed to the floor behind her.

“I seem to have gotten your attention,” Lillian said. “It will be over my dead body that a Luthor ever be allowed to marry a Super. Or her dead body, as it were. But before that, I think I’ll see if I can get out of her once and for all who Superman is. I think that’s some information Lex would be very interested in.”

“Lillian!” she shouted into the phone but the line was already dead. Without hesitation, Lena pulled open an encrypted app of hers, entered a long password, and she activated the feature within. The software began triangulating Kara’s location from a tracking device she’d installed in Kara’s super suit. She promised herself she would never use it until she told Kara about it, but this situation merited a bit of creative thinking. And asking for forgiveness later. Within a few seconds she had her location, a warehouse in the industrial side of town several miles away.

Mildly annoyed she’d worn a skirt today, Lena hurried to her private bathroom where she always kept a change of clothes in case she ever needed to do a messier project in her lab. Though she didn’t seem to have quite the super speed of Kara, she still changed at remarkable pace into a black zip-up turtleneck shirt and a pair of black cargo pants and boots. Topping the look off with a quick braid to get her hair out of the way, she then ran to her balcony. She peered over the edge, contemplating whether or not she should attempt to fly. It wasn’t something she and Kara had attempted yet because she wasn’t exactly a fan of heights. Closing her eyes, she focused on the power she felt within her, focused on the part in her she knew she hadn’t unlocked yet. Holding out her hand, she focused in her power like she had on the telekinetic power at the Fortress of Solitude (though these were less than ideal circumstances to be testing this hunch). She jumped from surprise that it actually worked when she suddenly heard a crackling noise in front of her. She opened her eyes to see what looked like a swirling purple portal in front of her. She stared for several seconds at the event horizon, fully aware this theoretical teleportation portal she’d just opened could lead to a complete void. After putting about a second of thought into it, the memory of Kara’s scream echoed in her mind, spurring her forward. Taking a deep breath, she stepped through the portal.

* * *

Kara normally liked Wednesdays. Game nights were on Wednesdays. Not as much crime happened on Wednesdays for some weird reason, and she was halfway through the week which meant she was that much closer to the weekend which she was that much closer to being able to make love to Lena all weekend. Maybe on a beach somewhere. She was very pleasantly surprised today when Lena decided to throw the “no kissing at work” rule straight out the window and they proceeded to do beautifully obscene things to each other in Lena’s office. Kara definitely liked Wednesdays.

She wasn’t even put off when she heard a siren wailing in the distance. After giving Lena a quick kiss, she blasted off in its direction and a few miles later found a huge factory of some kind on fire. It wasn’t until she landed on the roof and began blowing out the flames with her freeze breath power that she sensed something terribly wrong. She lurched into super speed, but just as she did, she felt an awful, agonizing pain tear through her body. She fell out of super speed and to her knees, clenching her teeth to keep herself from screaming.

Two pairs of inhumanly strong hands suddenly hauled her from the ground then threw her unceremoniously down through the warehouse roof. Thanks to the kryptonite currently causing her untold amounts of pain, she wasn’t able to catch herself from slamming into the pavement below. No sooner had she landed then the two men grabbed her again and attempted to throw her in the back of a black van. Gritting her teeth against the searing pain, she yanked one of her arms free from one of the men and slammed her fist into the side of the other’s face.

“Fuck!” the man cursed loudly but it didn’t seem to slow him too much. Which. . . how was that possible. . .?

“Keep fighting, Supergirl, and I kill every alien on this planet,” Kara heard the familiar voice of Lillian Luthor say. She looked up and saw a monitor in the van with Lillian’s face in it, looking at her with a smug look on her face. Kara had a strong feeling Lillian Luthor wasn’t one to make idle threats, so she stopped struggling. The two men threw her roughly into the van and it peeled off loudly down the road.

“I want you to know, I take no pleasure in this, Supergirl,” Lillian commented, still watching Kara through the monitor which had a small camera above it. “But you have forced my hand. I cannot allow my daughter to associate with the cousin of my son’s enemy. I do what I do for my children. It’s nothing personal.”

Kara slumped back against the van wall, having a hard time focusing on the world around her. One of Lillian’s cronies (or both, she had no idea) still had kryptonite hidden somewhere, and the white hot pain of it was starting to make her eyes water.

“You have a funny way of not making things personal,” Kara retorted, closing her eyes in hopes of preventing the tears in her eyes from escaping. “You must really hate the idea of Lena being happy.”

“Happiness is overrated,” Lillian replied coolly. “All Lena needs to succeed is a push in the right direction. Becoming CEO was a step in the right direction. Marrying _you_ was too many steps in the wrong direction for me to ignore.”

Even in her borderline delirious state, Kara still recognized Lillian must have discovered her human identity. She chose to remain silent, though mainly because opening her mouth without screaming in agony was almost impossible. After what felt like hours but was likely only a few minutes, the van came to a stop. The two men hauled her out and dragged into multi-story building in what looked like an abandoned part of town, but she didn’t miss the large LuthorCorp sign on the front of the building—one of the buildings Lena likely hadn’t had the time yet to rename and repurpose. The men dragged her down a flight of stairs to a large basement that looked like it probably used to be a lab of some kind, then threw her in a cage with thick bars glowing a soft green. She managed not to fall to her knees and turned to see her assailants. She had to blink several times when she saw one of the men. One she didn’t recognize, but the other looked like J’onn if he’d had half his face put in a meat grinder then replaced with metal.

“J’onn? What did she do to you?” she asked, her voice raspy and strained.

“I am Cyborg Superman, risen from the dead and I will be the end of your kind. Hank Henshaw is no more,” he said, his voice gravelly, like part of it had been replaced with cyborg implants.

“That will do, Hank,” Lillian’s smooth, cold voice cut through the air. Kara watched blearily as the woman approached her cell, gazing at her with cool blue eyes and an air of superiority simmering just beneath the ice. “I have something that might interest you,” Lillian continued as Hank stepped away from the bars. She held up her cell phone and pressed something on the screen and a recording of Lena’s voice came on.

_“Since the marriage has gone public, stock prices have risen ten percent. L-Corp’s had more positive mention in blogs and news than it ever has. ‘Commoners’ love it when royalty marries one of them.”_

Lillian pressed stop, cruel satisfaction now radiating through her eyes. “Do you see now, Supergirl? You are nothing to Lena. And even if she has been temporarily distracted by your charms, I’m here to set her on the right path again.”

Though it wasn’t easy hearing how convincingly Lena had said those words, Kara had felt too much of Lena’s love to believe for a moment that her devious human meant them. Lying about emotions in a Joining was simply not possible, which meant she had said those words to her mother with the intention of setting up some long-game check mate.

“You have a gift for underestimating your daughter, which is strange, considering you raised her from the age of four,” Kara retorted, surprised she could speak so articulately. She could feel the kryptonite in the bars and the pain wasn’t getting any easier to endure.

“Oh?” Lillian said and pressed play again.

_“The only way it can be convincing is if she really believes she’s married to the queen. Once the media buzz dies down, divorce papers will arrive on her desk,”_ Lena’s recorded voice said.

Lillian pressed stop again, her eyes now triumphant and cruel. It was perhaps that, mixed with kryptonite and the sharp bite of hearing Lena say the word “divorce” that caused Kara to say what she said next. But not before she laughed a strained, mocking laugh. “If you think for a second your petty tricks can come between us, you know _nothing_ of love. I have _felt_ the depth of Lena’s love and hurt and beautiful flaws in ways you can’t even comprehend. I have felt all of her emotions laid bare, raw and vulnerable and taken them in and it is our strength. What we share you will _never_ understand or know and I pity you for that, Lillian Luthor.”

The smugness in Lillian’s eyes evaporated, replaced with cold iron. She dialed a number and put the phone to her ear.

“You know, it really didn’t take much to figure out,” Lillian said when the recipient answered. “Although that synthetic kryptonite I planted at your little gala didn’t quite have the effect I wanted of killing Supergirl, it did make her careless. A camera caught her deactivating her suit—a suit I assume you made her—and lo and behold, she became the one and only Kara Danvers. I could almost forgive that this whole marriage thing was just a business maneuver. What I can’t forgive is that you _knowingly_ married Supergirl. You’ve given me no choice, Lena.”

When she finished speaking, she signaled to cyborg Hank and he pushed something on her gate controls that made the bars suddenly glow a bright green. This time she was unable to stop a scream from tearing from her throat. The near-unbearable pain she’d been experiencing since getting captured intensified so much she fell to her knees and had to fight off the urge to vomit. She heard Lillian say something else, but it was hard to focus on anything other than the feeling like someone had replaced her blood with acid then injected spikes into her bloodstream. She tried crawling, something, _anything_ to get away from the kryptonite threatening to suck the life out of her with each passing moment.

Somewhere in her agonized haze she heard Lillian say something about “Destroy this place and all evidence of her. I tire of wasting my time cleaning up Lena’s mistakes.”

Doing the only rational thing she could think to do to stop Lillian, Kara threw herself at the glowing metal bars. She was surprised when she succeeded in breaking through them, but she was still in too close proximity to the kryptonite to do much more. Coming in direct contact with the kryptonite also probably wasn’t the best idea. Kara looked up, trying desperately to see where she was, but her eyes were watering so hard now she could barely see anything. She couldn’t stop a soft sob as she tried to crawl again, tried to get away from that awful, biting clawing, burning kryptonite.

Just when she was ready to succumb, to give in to the call of death clinging to her lungs, another pair of hands suddenly slid beneath her arms, but these were not rough and forceful, they were gentle and loving and very familiar. It was such a stark contrast to the pain she’d been feeling, she was able to raise her head.

“I’m here, Kara. I’m here,” a warm, familiar voice said. “Let’s get you out of—”

The ground beneath them suddenly shook with such violence they both fell back to the ground before Kara could get her footing. A series of explosions set off a deafening chain reaction that brought the whole building crashing down on top of them. Kara knew she should launch into super speed, knew she should fly them out of there as fast as she could, but the pain of the kryptonite still hadn’t lifted, making the frustration of helplessness almost as agonizing as the excruciating pain of it.

And then it was gone. Just when she was sure the building would close around them and become their tomb, the pain was gone. The world came back into focus and she looked up to see the incredible sight of Lena Luthor standing above her like a wondrous dark goddess, her hands held above her as though she were holding a great weight. Kara glanced quickly around and saw they were surrounded by an energy shield of some kind, the sphere shimmering a deep violet. Kara sprang to her feet without hesitation, looking in worry at the massive amounts of debris still falling on top of them and burying them. The only barrier between them and the entire collapsed building was that which Lena was currently maintaining with an apparently newfound power.

“Can you maintain the shield if I fly us out of here?” Kara asked just as more of the building collapsed on them.

Lena’s face was strained, her jaw clenched tightly as beads of moisture trickled down her brow. “I think if you move us at all my shield will collapse,” she replied, every muscle in her vocal chords taut like a bow strung too tight. “If I lower the shield, the kryptonite will kill you and even with your powers I don’t know if I could survive this much debris crushing me. It’s not like we’ve tested this.”

Kara did the only thing she could think to do, the only thing that could possibly get them out of this. “I’m going to Join with you, give you my strength, okay? I just need you to help me maintain contact when I fly us out of here, because there has to be skin to skin contact.”

Lena nodded once, her eyes still focused on the twenty-story building now collapsed on top of them. Kara reached out and cupped Lena’s cheek, the Kryptonian’s skin softly glowing as soon as they touched. She was instantly overwhelmed with a flurry of emotions, but without the deeper, fuller contact that intimacy offered, she couldn’t feel physically what Lena was feeling. She knew she didn’t have a lot of time to try and establish a deeper connection, and she could tell from Lena’s emotions she couldn’t hold the weight much longer.

“I can try to open a portal to get us out of here, but we might end up in a wall somewhere. Or space,” Lena said, and Kara saw Lena’s eyes had begun to water from the strain of maintaining the shield.

“Portal? You can teleport now??” Kara asked, her surprise, amusement, and a bit of arrogance all sent through the Joining. “Wait, doesn’t matter, details later. I’ll get us home safe, just open that portal.”

Lena lowered one arm as Kara enclosed her arms around Lena and the air around them began to crackle, like static electricity building up. Just as an oval portal opened just big enough for the two of them, she felt a powerful wave of Lena’s fear pour through their Joining. The violet event horizon of the portal flickered, but Lena planted her feet harder and let out a determined growl. The moment the portal stabilized, Kara lurched into super speed and blasted them through it. The world on the other side materialized and she found herself flying a few thousand feet above National City. In the next instant, she was jarred from Lena’s emotions and their Joining as Lena fell unconscious in her arms.

“Lena!” Kara cried out, clutching Lena’s limp body to her. Without pause, without a moment’s hesitation, she slipped her arm beneath Lena’s knees and carried her bridal style as fast as she could fly to the D.E.O. Though Kara couldn’t feel Lena’s pain through their Joining, she knew something was terribly wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaw what a dick move, writing a cliffy right before the holidays! So sorryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! XD


	16. Strength

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew what a hiatus! Hope you enjoy some obscenely sweet fluff. Like, toothbrushes and floss on the ready, because ya'll are about to get cavities.

Lena kept slipping between semi-consciousness and terrifying dreams of walls closing in on her, crushing and suffocating her, and Kara screaming in pain over and over. The memory of her battle with her mother’s crony named Metallo replayed in her mind, and each time she felt the pain when he blasted her with the strange kryptonite weapon in his chest, felt the rebar he’d picked up from the ground and used as a weapon stab into her stomach, felt the searing, agonizing, debilitating pain of it again and again as the memory played on repeat in her mind. Through her pain, clarity slowly worked its way into her dreams. She surmised the kryptonite weapon he used on her must have affected her protective aura like it did for Kara, only because she was human, it didn’t harm her like it did Kara. The realization did little to ease the pain she felt. Crushing weight and darkness made her feel as though she would never wake, that she would suffocate in it, that it would steal her life away, and that it would steal Kara from her.

And then she felt a soothing warmth, a loving presence near, watching over her and speaking tender words to her. Lena slowly woke to see blurred colors and images, dull overhead lights and what looked like a darkened window indicating it was no longer daytime. With some effort she turned her gaze and saw a blur of golden hair near her waist. After a time the world came into focus and she saw Kara had fallen asleep, her head and arms resting on Lena’s bed, both hands holding Lena’s right hand, and the rest of her Kryptonian was slumped in a chair sitting next to the bed.

Lena tried to reach out and stroke that beautiful hair, but she found movement difficult, like she had too much morphine in her system. She must have made a noise of some kind, because Kara lifted her head and she found herself gazing into those beautiful blue eyes she’d so quickly come to love.

“Lena!” Kara exhaled Lena’s name like a breath she’d been holding and surged off her chair. “Thank Rao you’re awake! I’ve been so worried, I’m so sorry, Lena. I’m so sorry this happened to you.”

“What time is it?” Lena asked, though her voice sounded rough to her own ears, like it hadn’t been used in days. “How long was I out?”

Kara leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Lena’s cheek, and when she pulled back, Lena saw tears in the other’s eyes. “It’s about 2:30am. You’ve been unconscious for three days. Why didn’t you tell me you’d been stabbed, Lena? I could’ve—”

“There wasn’t time, Kara,” Lena interrupted gently. “And I’d do it all again, a thousand times. I got you out of there, that’s all that matters.”

“It _does_ matter, Lena. It matters to _me_. I can’t lose you, I can’t! Rao, how did you even find me?” Kara asked, scooting the chair closer and clasped Lena’s hand in both of hers, her eyes bare and beautiful without her glasses.

“Oh. . . I was going to let you know I installed a tracking device in your suit in the event something like this happened. I forgot to tell you. When my mother called and I heard you scream. . . I told myself I wouldn’t use the tracking device until I told you about it, but I couldn’t stand by and do nothing while my mother tortured you. I can’t lose you either, Kara,” Lena said, reaching up to gently caress Kara’s cheek. “I love you, Kara, and you’re sorely mistaken if you think I’d just sit on the sidelines while I can hear you _dying_. Not while I could save you. Not ever.”

Lena realized she started to sit up to make her point only when a searing pain cut through her stomach, and she fell back on the bed with a soft cry. Kara sprung back up, her face lined with worry as she gently pushed Lena back on the bed.

“I think Metallo’s stupid kryptonite weapon did a number on my super healing,” Lena said through gritted teeth.

Kara slowly pushed Lena’s shirt up to her ribcage and looked over the bandage, her worry lines deepening. Lena glanced down and saw blood seeping through the bandage.

“It’s not healing at all, and we don’t know why,” Kara said, speeding to a cupboard and back, her hands full of some gauze and bandages. “What happened during the fight?”

“My mother’s crony Metallo and I fought briefly. He hit me with some weird kryptonite weapon in his chest then stabbed me before I opened a portal beneath his feet and opened the other end in a nearby cement wall,” Lena replied. “I have a theory that kryptonite can’t hurt me because I’m human, but it must have affected my protective aura, like yours. Maybe it’s why I’m not healing either.”

Kara carefully peeled off the soiled bandage and dabbed the wound with some gauze around the stitches.

“Shouldn’t a nurse be doing this?” Lena asked as Kara began covering the wound with fresh bandages.

“Since bringing you here, I did some studying at super speed. I’m now a certified nurse,” Kara replied, her face focused. “Are you in pain? I can increase your morphine dosage.”

Lena felt the corners of her lips twitch into a small smile. “You became a certified nurse in three days for me?”

“Technically it was three hours. The rest of the time I’ve been driving Alex nuts trying to tell her how to do her job,” Kara said with a small, sardonic grin.

Lena looked around the room again and noticed it wasn’t an ordinary hospital room. “Where are we?”

“The D.E.O. medical suite,” Kara replied, her fingers amazingly gentle for such powerful hands as she applied medical tape around the edges. “I couldn’t exactly take you to a hospital. If they would have run an MRI or an X-Ray, the results would have raised questions I wasn’t sure you wanted to answer to strangers.”

Lena caught Kara’s wrist and gently tugged on it. Kara set the leftover medical supplies on the table near the bed, then allowed Lena to pull her onto the bed. She laid next to Lena, careful not to put any weight on her.

“What happened? Where did I teleport us?” Lena asked.

“Above the city,” Kara answered. “Is that what you were aiming for?”

Lena tried to chuckle but groaned in pain from trying to use stomach muscles. “No. I was aiming for my balcony. Better than space I suppose.”

Kara lightly ran her fingers through Lena’s hair, worry apparent on her beautiful face. “When we Joined before you teleported us, I couldn’t feel your pain, our connection was too weak. I didn’t know. You hid it so well. Rao, Lena, you looked like a goddess standing over me, holding up that entire collapsed building. Do you have any idea how singularly incredible you are?”

Lena offered Kara a weak smile. “If I am incredible, it’s because you made me so.”

“No, all I did was give you a few powers. The rest was all you,” Kara said, brushing a strand of hair from Lena’s forehead. When Lena winced in pain from her wound flaring up, Kara propped herself up on an elbow, the concern on her face deepening. “I. . . I have a theory that if we Join, you’ll get your protective aura back and you’ll heal.”

“But we did Join, before we teleported. I didn’t heal then, maybe something is wrong because of the kryptonite?” Lena asked.

“I wasn’t able to establish a deeper Joining, our physical connection was too weak. I spoke with Clark a couple of days ago. He said when he and Lois Joined for the first time, it was just a simple family Joining, but she didn’t gain any powers from it. It wasn’t until they did the deepest form of Joining that she gained his protective aura. She’s still working out what her powers are.”

Lena tried to chuckle at the implication, but it again turned into a soft moan of pain. “Believe me, I’d love for you to heal me succubus style, but sadly I’m not quite sure I’m up for any vigorous lovemaking at the moment.”

Kara merely smiled gently at Lena’s teasing. “Joining is a bit less complicated than that, as it turns out. Kal and I have done a lot of research on it since you’ve been unconscious. The depth of the Joining depends only on the amount of physical contact. So long as we have enough skin to skin contact, it should be enough to give you powers again. Or, my protective aura back anyway. The kryptonite didn’t seem to affect your powers, just your protective aura.”

“So you didn’t fuck super powers into me? A shame. I rather liked that idea,” Lena teased with a small grin. “But if you’re trying to get me naked, there are easier ways.”

“I’m being serious, Lena,” Kara said softly.

“I’m sorry,” Lena replied, her smile fading. “I was delaying asking for what I need, because I’m not good at asking for what I need.”

Kara leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to Lena’s cheek. “Anything, Lena. Anything in the world and I’ll do it. Tell me what you need.”

“I um. . . using stomach muscles really hurts and most movement requires abs. Can you. . . can you help me undress?”

Kara pulled back, her blue eyes radiating a look that strongly suggested she longed to give Lena exactly what she needed at all times. With that same almost unbelievable gentleness with those strong hands, she slipped her fingertips beneath the hem of the T-shirt scrubs and carefully lifted it up over Lena’s waist. Lena raised her arms and Kara pulled the shirt off, setting it on the small table next to the bed. Lena watched Kara’s eyes closely, noticing them drop to her naked breasts but then quickly look away. Despite the pain of her wound (and all-too aware how unflattering she must look after being unconscious for three days), Lena couldn’t help but feel a spark of enjoyment that Kara still noticed her, even when she didn’t feel desirable at all.

“Are we at risk of someone walking on us?” Lena asked as Kara pulled off Lena’s hospital scrub bottoms.

“No. It’s three in the morning and I told Alex I’d be your nurse for the night and would call if anything changed,” Kara replied, pulling off her own shirt.

“How did Alex take it? Learning a Luthor had powers?” Lena asked cautiously.

“I think she was more curious how Joining worked to worry about it,” Kara replied, wiggling out of her pants. “She seemed disappointed to learn that an intimate Joining seems to be the only way to transfer powers, though. I think she’s always wanted powers.”

As Kara slid onto the bed next to Lena, she pulled the blankets over them to at least cover them in the unlikely event anyone walked in, for which Lena was grateful. Kara pressed as much of her naked body as she could to Lena’s without putting any pressure on her wound, cocooning Lena in her strong arms. Though this was decidedly the most unique way she’d ever attempted to heal a wound, Lena had zero complaints. It was certainly more fun than invasive surgery.

“Ready?” Kara asked softly, her beautiful eyes emanating love and worry and hope and Lena just loved this Kryptonian so much it hurt.

“Always,” Lena replied, lifting a hand to caress Kara’s cheek. Just as Kara began to softly glow, Lena pulled Kara down into a gentle, chaste kiss.

As with all the other times they Joined, Lena felt a flood of Kara’s emotions, though because they weren’t having sex, she couldn’t feel Kara’s sexual energy or arousal. She must have sent a bit of a lament through about that last observation because she felt a tinge of amusement come from Kara. But mostly she felt Kara’s overwhelming love and worry, sorrow and fear. It was the fear that broke Lena’s heart the most because she suddenly and clearly understood it. Kara was afraid to lose Lena. She had lost her whole world (literally) and she was terrified to lose anyone else she loved. Terrified it would break her. With this realization a swell of love and incredible pride in Kara that she had taken the chance that she had on Lena, that she still let her in despite her fear.

Kara suddenly broke away from their kiss with a soft grunt of pain as she felt Lena’s pain, and Lena realized she could now feel Kara’s sensations as well.

Lena felt Kara’s amazement at Lena’s pain tolerance, and just knowing Kara was sharing her pain so willingly and freely eased the pain of the wound within moments. Everything felt better with Kara there, protecting her, wanting to be there for her, and just loving her. Lena tightened her arms around Kara, pulling her closer, longing for more of her, to go further into her, to melt together so completely the lines between them no longer existed. The depth of Lena’s yearning flooded through to Kara, the effect of which had Kara settling even further on Lena, touch as much of Lena as she could. Lena wrapped as much of herself as she could around Kara, bringing both her legs up to wrap around Kara’s hips and her arms around Kara’s shoulders. Kara tightened her arms around Lena in turn, slipping them beneath Lena’s back to completely encompass Lena in her strength and love.

They lay like this for a long time, both taking in all of each other’s emotions and sensations, both feeling the other’s enjoyment of the intimacy of both the Joining and their naked skin against each other. Both were aware of each other’s pleasant arousal from the intimate nature of their physical contact, but neither were in a rush to sate it, though mainly because Kara wanted to be absolutely certain Lena was fully healed. Time lost all meaning lying in Kara’s arms and Lena realized she could have happily stayed there the rest of the night, but eventually Kara lifted carefully off Lena and straddled her hips. She brushed her fingertips over the bandage on Lena’s abdomen.

“I can’t feel your pain any longer; can I check it?” she asked, her voice wonderful and soft, and Kara smiled at the wave of love Lena sent through to her.

“Of course,” Lena replied, allowing her eyes to drift to Kara’s naked breasts as her Kryptonian peeled back the bandage. When Kara’s face turned pensive, Lena glanced down to find the wound was gone, replaced only with a scar. Kara peeled off the rest of the bandage and bent to press her lips to the scar. Lena felt Kara’s anguish flood through the Joining so powerfully it drew tears to her eyes.

“Kara,” she breathed, slipping her hands beneath Kara’s chin and pulled her back up into a fierce kiss. They kissed and they kissed until Kara had no more tears left to shed and she was at least soothed by the endless love Lena sent through to her.

As their Joining faded, Kara slowly settled next to Lena, nuzzling into her neck as Lena ran her fingers through blonde locks. “I’m in love with you, Kara,” Lena whispered. “Let it leave a scar, I hope it does. I want it, I want the world to see it, to see the evidence of my love, to know that I belong to you, Kara Zor-El.”

“If you wanted a super hickie, you could have just asked,” Kara said, her voice muffled against Lena’s neck in which her face was currently buried.

Lena swatted Kara’s shoulder, but she could feel Kara’s smile against her neck. The Kryptonian pulled back and propped herself on her elbow, resting her head on her palm. As she gazed at Lena, her face slowly became troubled. “Your mother. . . well, _Lillian_ , spoke to me before you rescued me. She played a recording of something you told her. You said the marriage was all for business and you planned on divorcing me in a couple of months.”

Lena felt her heart drop into her stomach. She’d forgotten about that conversation, considering it was that very night when they’d first made love, and that had quite successfully put it from Lena’s mind. “I just told her what she wanted to hear. You have to believe that; I said it to buy some time so I could figure out how to find her and bring her down. The woman belongs in prison, and I’m the only one who can out-maneuver her. I didn’t mean a word of it, Kara, you must know that.”

“I know,” Kara said softly, slipping her free hand into Lena’s and brought it to her lips, kissing the wedding ring resting there. “I just. . . we’re both new to this relationship and I think we’re both used to keeping secrets. I want. . . I want to be part of your plans, Lena. Let me help you bring Lillian in to the authorities. You’re right—she does belong in prison, and I can help you. We’re stronger together; unstoppable, I think. But it’s going to require communicating a bit better with each other. Like perhaps telling me when you install tracking devices in super suits.”

“Why do I get the feeling you’re telling me I’m the one specifically who needs to communicate better?” Lena asked with a teasing grin.

“No, I meant both of us,” Kara replied genuinely. “There’s something I haven’t told you about how marriage works on Krypton, and um. . . and well, my feelings on the matter.”

Lena hoped the sudden extreme anxiety she felt didn’t reflect on her face. She was glad their Joining had faded, though considering they were currently laying naked together, she recognized her fear was likely unwarranted. “How does marriage work on Krypton?” Lena asked quietly, forcing herself to look at Kara.

Kara took a deep breath, her expression taking on that beautiful Supergirl determination. The face of someone facing fears of their own. “On Krypton, ‘marriage’ (though we have a much different word for it with a very different meaning), is our most sacred of unions. Divorce doesn’t exist, we don’t even have a word for that. Not because marriage has roots in ownership like the history of marriage here on Earth. It is a sacred union between two or more people who willingly enter an agreement, a sacred promise to become family, to care for each other always. Not everyone seeks ‘marriage’ on Krypton, and there’s no societal pressure to get married. Having children outside marriage, for instance, is not frowned upon, because marriage is such a private, personal thing. It is a choice to create a new family, a new House and new name. Both my mother and father come from different House names, but when they married, they chose to combine their last names, ‘Zor’ and ‘El.' Not all who marry choose to do that; some come up with a new House name entirely. Kal’s mother and father chose to keep his House name of ‘El’ because much of her family was gone and she wanted to become part of the El House, to be claimed by her chosen family. Anyway, I’m telling you all this for context. Family is for life on Krypton, especially chosen family. When I heard you say we would divorce in a few months, even knowing you had your reasons for saying that to Lillian, everything in me rebelled against it. That word means something very ugly to me, it is an intentional turning your back on your chosen family. But I didn’t tell you any of this because I do understand marriage on Earth has a very fraught history and didn’t want you to feel as though I were trying to claim ownership of you. And I didn’t want to refuse to divorce you, given the somewhat crass circumstances under which we were married. But you are my chosen family, Lena Luthor. I know this has all been so fast and so crazy, and I will respect your decision if you want to get a divorce, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be rid of me. I’ll always be here for you, whether or not some piece of paper is signed or not. I’m not giving you an ultimatum, I’m just letting you know, we don’t have to get divorced on my account.”

Lena felt the tightness in her chest evaporate. A tightness she’d felt since realizing she was in love with Kara and didn’t want to divorce her or ever be away from her for that matter. “Kara, there is not a force in this world that could compel me to or make me want to divorce you. Marrying you is the single best thing that has ever happened to me. Even the morning after, when we first realized we were married I didn’t want to divorce you.” Lena laughed lightly at herself. “God, when you came up to my room after I thought you rejected me, I was crying.”

“I’m sorry,” Kara said, kissing Lena’s ring again. “My intention was to allow you the opportunity to bow out gracefully if you didn’t feel the same way I did.”

“Kara, it’s all right,” Lena said with a gentle smile, reaching up and pressed her lips to Kara’s in a wonderfully soft kiss. “We’re here now. Literally in bed naked together. And I um. . . if you’re open to it. . . and you’d have to tell me how it works, but how would you feel about having a proper wedding? A Kryptonian wedding, though. Or ceremony. Is it a ceremony?”

Lena witnessed the beautiful sight of tears of joy springing to Kara’s eyes and a smile brighter than the sun lighting up her beautiful face. “It is,” she replied, her voice cracking from the emotion there. “And you don’t know how happy you’ve just made me, Lena. I love you. Rao, Lena, I love you _so_ much.”

Their lips came together again, their lips that fit together as though they’d been created to kiss each other's.

“Kara,” Lena groaned as her Kryptonian’s hand slid down her thigh and settled between her legs, stroking her invitingly. “Take me home, darling. It’s been three days and I want nothing more than to make up for that time. Maybe starting with the shower.”

Lena watched in delighted awe as Kara’s blue eyes turned black. “Well if you insist,” she said, already slipping her strong arms beneath Lena.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Onto plot next chapter! Maybe. Or maybe smut. Maybe both? XD


	17. Never Cross a Luthor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Plot and smut as promised! X3  
> The opening scene is dedicated to "QuiteTheScreamer" who commented: " 'because the idea of being bent over by Lena Luthor was a special kind of heaven' - a chapter dedicated to this please."  
> I'm here to please. X3

Lena, it seemed, was quite determined to make up for the three days of missed lovemaking now that she was healed. Or at least that was Kara’s assumption based on the fact that the Kryptonian was currently bent over the back of Lena’s couch, currently being fucked senseless by a sex-toy-wielding Lena. The arousing (and incredibly indecent) sounds of Lena’s legs slapping hard and fast against the back of Kara’s thighs filled the apartment, along with Kara’s entirely unashamed, loud groans of pleasure as the vibrating toy mercilessly rammed into that sweetest of spots deep within her. This wasn’t the first time of going at it since getting home; they’d started on the bed, then afterwards moved to the kitchen to have a snack and water, then went at it on the kitchen counter, then Lena had collected her phallic invention and promptly bent Kara over the couch. Lena was in a bit of a mood, if the knee-high black boots she currently wore (and nothing else) were any indication.

Lena suddenly stopped all movement for what felt like the hundredth time, only this time, the hand on Kara’s back holding her down moved up along her spine and neck, only to take a fistful of her hair. She roughly pulled Kara’s head up, the action eliciting a soft whimper of both enjoyment and frustration from Kara. She was so hopelessly aroused and in desperate need of release, but Lena, it seemed, was quite determined _not_ to give her what she needed. It was the single most torturous and pleasurable experience of her life. She’d never been dominated before, and being dominated by Lena Luthor like this was a special kind of heaven.

“Please. . .!” Kara whined more than begged, hoping it would be enough to placate her devious human.

“Please?” Lena purred next to Kara’s ear, her fingers tightening on Kara’s hair. “You’ll have to be a bit more specific than that, darling. Are you saying please because you wish me to stop?”

“No!” Kara cried out in desperation as Lena began pulling back, taking the thick toy from her throbbing inner walls. Kara hadn’t realized how deliciously evil Lena could be, and she felt a bit out of her depth. She was unsure what it would take to make Lena relent and give her what she so desperately needed. “Oh Rao, Lena, please don’t stop!”

Lena slowly pushed back inside Kara until their bodies were flush again. Kara let out a frustrated groan, silently willing Lena to move her hips, to give her the movement and friction she needed. She wanted to Join with Lena, but Lena hadn’t demanded it yet, likely because she was well aware if she could feel Kara’s agonizing need, she would no longer be able to deny her. Devious human.

“And why is it you need me to not stop?” Lena asked, almost conversationally as she pulled out slowly. . . and then slammed back inside Kara.

Kara had already tried (several times) to push back into Lena, but her devious human had stopped moving each time, and Kara was running out of strategies. Aside from using a lot of super strength and speed to move them to the bed and ride Lena like a wild animal until she came for the fourth time that night (morning? She’d lost track of time). Which she was _very_ close to doing.

“I need. . . I need to. . .!” she tried but words stopped coming as Lena started driving into her again, rewarding her for answering. Ah. So that’s what Lena wanted. Which was cruel, of course, because the precision with which she was plowing into that painfully pleasurable spot within her burning walls was making words stupidly difficult to form.

“Tell me what you need, darling,” Lena whispered breathlessly in her ear.

Kara made a noise somewhere between a whimper and a groan at _that_. Lena was being impossibly sexy right now. But she really did wish Lena would stop teasing her. Despite the fact that she’d already come three times since arriving home, she was close to breaking all over again.

When Lena reached around her and began stroking her aching, swollen clit, however, Kara broke.

“Please. . .!” she panted back arching into her touch. “Please make me come, Lena. . .!”

Though she couldn’t bring herself to say something as dirty as “fuck me” (though she loved it when Lena said it), her words worked like a charm on Lena. The brunette at last angled her hips in just the right way that allowed for the most speed and force as she thrust into Kara. The ensuing indecent sounds and scents that filled the air of Lena’s apartment proved too much to bear. Just as Kara reached the edge from which there was no return, Lena panted, “Join with me!”

Considering it had been taking all her willpower not to do so, Kara opened like a floodgate. They both saw stars as Kara’s agonizing pleasure overtook them, and Lena’s fingertips dug into Kara’s hip as she buried herself to the hilt, stopping all movement on Kara’s clit to trap the Kryptonian in the moment just before orgasm. It felt as though Lena had suddenly trapped her in zero gravity, stopped her from falling over the edge but frozen in such unbearable pleasure that Kara could barely breathe, despite the fact that she was practically screaming in a high-pitched groan. Kara came so hard when release finally happened she wasn’t even sure what language she screamed out in. It might have been French.

Before she could even contemplate aftershocks, Lena was driving into her again and within moments both of them were coming all over again, only this time Kara was unable to contain her arousal from jetting out around the thick shaft of the toy and down the front of Lena’s thighs. Kara felt her cheeks burn red but only for a moment as she felt Lena’s overwhelming delight and lust at making Kara come so hard that she actually came out around her length like that.

Kara was all but sobbing with happiness by the time her final aftershocks at last died down with Lena slumped over her back and both of them trying to catch their breath. Kara was a little amazed the couch hadn’t collapsed under the brute force with which Lena had just been fucking her. Even as their Joining faded, she felt wave after wave of Lena’s love and happiness (and perhaps a bit of smugness) flooding through to her, encompassing her and drowning her and if this was how she was to die, she would die happy.

“I think we’re going to need another shower,” Kara chuckled into the couch cushion after a few minutes of pleasant breathlessness.

“And maybe a new couch,” Lena added with an amused snort.

Kara moaned softly in complaint as Lena peeled herself off Kara’s back and withdrew the toy from her slick inner walls. Kara then giggled when Lena didn’t bother removing the toy from herself as she made her way to the bathroom, and the Kryptonian quickly followed her. As soon as the water was on and Lena had removed it from herself, Kara promptly hijacked the sex toy and after positioning it within herself, she pinned Lena face first up against the tiled shower wall. She teased Lena’s still-wet entrance with the thick head of the toy, humming approvingly as Lena let out a soft whimper.

“You didn’t think I was going to let you get away with what you did to me on the couch did you?” Kara purred in Lena’s ear, nibbling the back of Lena’s ear.

Lena’s hands slapped hard against the shower wall as Kara plunged inside her in a brutal thrust. “Fuck. . .!” Lena gasped, already panting in anticipation of what Kara was about to do. "Oh god, please fuck me, Kara. . .!"

Kara was merciless and dragged nothing out, unlike Lena had done. She angled her hips to hit that sweet spot within Lena with every driving thrust, reaching around Lena’s body to attack her swollen clit with her fingertips. Despite the fact that she was focused on Lena's pleasure, she couldn't stop her own soft groans from spilling from her lips as she plunged into Lena's tight, wet walls over and over, feeling each thrust on her clit from the sensory transmitter. Kara marveled, not for the first time at the brilliance of Lena's invention. She loved being inside Lena, feeling her warmth, her tightness, her beautiful wetness all on her throbbing, aching clit.

"God, you're so beautiful, Lena," Kara gasped out, her body already glowing with the need to Join. Lena opened to her once again, and both of them groaned when they felt each other's pleasure wash over them. "Rao, I love you so much Lena. _God_ I love being inside you."

“Fuck, Kara I’m going to come. . .!” Lena gasped out within just a few precious seconds as Kara thrust mercilessly into her, angling her hips to hit that wonderful spot deep within Lena.

It was the fastest Lena had ever come—an orgasm shared when she felt Lena’s tight walls flutter around the thick shaft of the toy, a sensation that she felt right on her clit from Lena's brilliant invention. She buried herself to the hilt, her body flush with the back of Lena's as she came deep within her lover's tight walls. Lena reached up and grasped Kara's neck, holding on for dear life as they both quaked with aftershocks.

Kara wasn’t satisfied until she had made her devious Luthor come twice more after that. After rinsing _that_ beautiful mess from their bodies, Lena’s eyes suddenly took on a laser focus as Kara rinsed off the toy.

“We have the upper hand,” Lena said abruptly, halting movement in the middle of applying bodywash to herself.

Kara looked up and set the toy on one of the shelves in the shower. “What do you mean?”

“Lillian was already gone by the time I got there, and her zombie Metallo is back to being dead again, so he can’t exactly tell her I showed up and rescued you. Lillian _thinks you’re dead_. Unless. . . have you done any Supergirl things while I was unconscious?”

Kara thought over the past few days. “No, actually. It’s been a quiet week. There was one crisis, but J’onn took care of it because he knew I was looking after you.”

“Hmm. . . My phone didn’t get any calls from unknown callers while I was out, did it?”

Kara squirted some of Lena’s expensive, wonderfully scented shampoo in her hand then started washing her hair. “No, only some work calls. I placated the executives and the board, telling them you had a really bad flu and couldn’t come to work for the rest of the week.”

“And what about the VP of Operations’ assistant, Eve? You didn’t come into contact with her at all, did you? This should have been one of those things I told you: she is a spy for either Lex or Lillian, maybe both. She thinks I don’t know, the fool. But if she saw you, then Lillian will definitely know you’re still alive.”

“Oh, I never went into work, I just answered some calls,” Kara replied. “I wasn’t about to leave your side, but I got everything done that needed to get done without going in.”

“Have I mentioned that I love having you as my assistant? Efficiency is sexy as fuck, and you are _very_ efficient,” Lena said, letting the innuendo of the last two words sit heavily in the air as icy eyes raked over Kara’s hips, hands, and mouth.

Several minutes of very messy tonguing later, after both of them ended pinned against the shower wall at some point, Kara collected herself. “You were saying something about having the upper hand with Lillian?” she said a bit breathlessly. In all honesty she probably could have gone for another round of lovemaking, but it was getting rather excessive at this point.

Lena grabbed her expensive conditioner and applied some to her hand. “Oh right! She thinks you’re dead and doesn’t know I have super powers. The possibilities and practical application of this advantage are endless!” Lena enthused. She then paused for a moment. “Okay, I fully recognize I probably shouldn’t be excited by the prospect of bringing down my own mother and should probably seek therapy about this.”

“Should we be concerned that she knows I’m Supergirl?” Kara asked.

Lena let out a scornful snort. “Your secret is probably safer with her than just about anyone in the world. She would rather die than admit a Luthor married a Super—the embarrassment to Lex alone is something she would never accept. Thus why she tried to kill you so quickly.”

“Huh. Well, silver linings I suppose,” Kara said with a shrug.

“Getting a hold of her will be the hard part,” Lena said as she rinsed off. “She is likely waiting for the announcement that Kara Danvers is dead before reaching out to me. Hmm. . . faking your death will have too many moving parts and too much can go wrong. This needs to be simple and fast, otherwise she might sense something amiss. I need to send her a message, somehow, like a bat signal.”

Kara rolled her eyes at the analogy. “Given your mother’s love of ‘caped crusaders,’ I’m sure she’ll _love_ that,” she said sarcastically.

Lena pursed her lips but otherwise ignored the comment. “I know what will get her attention. I’ll announce that I’m stepping down as CEO of L-Corp.”

That caused Kara to pause. She gave Lena s searching look. “How is that simple?”

Lena’s face turned pensive and she worried her lower lip. “So. . . this isn’t a decision I would make lightly because I know it would affect you too as my assistant, but . . . what if I told you I don’t want to be CEO of L-Corp anymore?”

Kara couldn’t feel anything but happy at that news, but she was careful not to show it before hearing Lena out. “Oh? Is there something else that has caught your interest?”

Lena worried her lip for a bit longer before answering. “Since meeting you. . . well, before then if I’m being honest, I’ve wanted more than just running a company. I’m more of a Nikola Tesla type than a Thomas Edison type. I’m the inventor, not the sales person. I’m good at sales, but Edison was a dick, so whatever. I want to be an inventor. And I have the money and resources to do so. I just think my time is far better spent creating things to make this world a better place than running some company. A lot of good can be done running a good company that does good things, but that’s just not my calling. So. . . if I did this, how would you feel about being my lab partner instead of my assistant? The art behind the science?”

“Yes.”

Lena blinked several times before laughing in surprise. “Well that was a lot easier than I thought it would be.”

Kara grinned, wide and happy. “I would love to work with you no matter what you do. And don’t get me wrong, I think you are an amazing CEO, but I’ve sensed since being hired that being a CEO isn’t where your heart is, it’s not your passion. I would love to see what the incomparable Lena Luthor could do if she weren’t being held back by something as uninteresting as running a company. A brain as beautiful as yours should be fostered and cared for and encouraged to grow in an environment that is conducive to imaginative endeavor. I _revel_ in the idea of watching what you could do, what _we_ could do together.”

“I love you so fucking much, Kara Zor-El,” Lena said and slid into Kara’s arms. “And just imagine the fun we could have as lab partners, answering to no one but ourselves.”

An amused, flirtatious grin teased Kara’s lips. “Miss Luthor, are you just using me for my hot body to have hot lab sex?”

Lena hummed a giggle but leaned forward and bit Kara’s lower lip for that remark. Kara giggled in response against her lover’s lips. “Are you complaining?” Lena replied, her voice deliciously seductive as she pressed her full naked body up against Kara’s.

Kara might have replied, but she found words suddenly difficult to form beneath those beautiful lips.

* * *

It happened fast, like it was all meant to be. It helped that it was something Lena had been ruminating on for quite some time now, strategizing how to go about it and who would be the best person to replace her at L-Corp. Her CFO Sam Arias (and former Sorority Sister at university) was perfect for the job, and Lena knew she was ready. And so, after telling the executive team and the board that she was stepping down as CEO, and that as majority shareholder she had final say in who could replace her, she named Samantha Arias to replace her at the end of her contract in three months. She then wasted no time in finding a large media outlet to spread the news, all while keeping Kara completely hidden from view as both Supergirl and Kara.

All of this happened in just two short days, and on the afternoon of the third day, after the news cycle disseminated the knowledge of Lena stepping down, she received a call from an unknown caller at one o’clock sharp. She took a deep, steadying breath before answering.

“Do I have your attention now, Mother?” Lena asked, her voice cold iron and nitroglycerin.

“Honestly, Lena, this is all very overdramatic,” Lillian’s cool voice answered. “You’ve only known the girl for a few months. You’ll be thanking me once your withdrawal symptoms pass. She was an addiction, a passing fancy, and you’ll be over her before you know it.”

Though Lena knew this was exactly what Lillian would say, hearing it still made her seethe with anger. She couldn’t even feel triumphant knowing she was about to move into check mate with the woman. This was a game she never wanted to play, but one Lillian seemed determined to drag her into nonetheless.

“You have cut out my heart, Mother. And so you leave me no choice but to cut out yours,” Lena replied in what she felt was some of her best acting work yet.

Only a few heartbeats passed before Lillian gleaned the insinuation of Lena’s threat. “What have you done to Lex?” Lillian demanded, her cool voice cracking ever so slightly for the first time.

Lena gave Lillian a few seconds to pull up the security cameras in Lex’s prison cell which she knew Lillian monitored often. (Lena also knew the only reason Lex hadn’t escaped yet was because Lena had personally overseen some modifications to the security in his cell).

“Nothing yet,” Lena replied. “But do you see that spider in the top corner opposite the camera? A new little nanotech invention of mine. At the press of a button, I can have it smother him in his sleep, poison his food, drown him in his toilet, take your pick. Oh, and in case you think I’m bluffing, watch.”

Lena pressed a few buttons on her keyboard and the nanotech spider flashed the letters I-S-E-E-Y-O-U in Morse Code from a tiny light on its prosoma. A pregnant pause followed, in which Lena knew Lillian to be calculating the odds that Lena might be bluffing.

“You wouldn’t, Lena. He’s your own brother, your blood. Think clearly, Lena. That alien poisoned your mind, poisoned you against me, against us. You’re a Luthor, and Luthors stick together. I didn’t do what I did to hurt you. I did it to save you because you’re my daughter and I love you,” Lillian said.

Lena was unsurprised by Lillian’s tactic—playing to Lena’s desire for family. Such a tactic might have worked years ago when she still desired Lillian’s love and approval. But she had long since given up that hope.

“It is unwise to assume I’m bluffing, Mother,” Lena said, her voice now venomous.

She activated the nanotech spider and it leapt down on the back of Lex’s neck and injected a paralyzing agent into his body. He slumped immediately on the desk at which he sat.

“Lex!” Lillian exclaimed, and Lena could hear the genuine surprise in Lillian’s voice. “What have you done to him?” she demanded.

“I’ll inject the antidote as soon as you agree to something,” Lena replied coolly.

There was another slight pause, this one shorter. “What do you want?” Lillian asked, her voice now resigned and lifeless.

“I want to meet. Just you and me and don’t even think about bringing any of your cronies or Lex dies,” Lena replied.

“Meet? Why?” Lillian demanded.

Lena rolled her eyes. Leave it to Lillian Luthor to be demanding even when she believed her beloved son was dying. He of course wasn’t—the paralyzing agent was harmless—but Lillian didn’t very well know that, did she?

“Because I want you to look me in the eye and tell me to my face that you murdered my wife, the one person in this whole world who loved me, who _was_ my whole world. I want you to say it to my face that you took my whole world from me, and that you did it for _you_ , not for me. And then I want you to beg for my forgiveness,” Lena all but snarled.

“All right!” Lillian replied quickly. “All right. Name the time and place, just please give him the antidote!”

“You understand that if you don’t show up, Lex dies? And don’t think for a second I won’t do it, Lillian. What I am now, the cold, ruthless Luthor you’ve always wanted me to be is happening because of you, because you’ve given me nothing left to lose,” Lena snapped.

“Lena, whatever you may think of me, I would die for my children—both of you. My life is forfeit so long as it saves Lex or you,” Lillian replied.

Lena felt her heart twist in pain at the words as she sent the command to the nanotech to inject Lex with a neutralizing agent. It then returned itself to the ceiling corner as Lex looked wildly around the room. Despite everything, Lena knew Lillian could be strangely protective of her. Someone had once tried to assassinate Lena, and Lillian had personally seen to it that both the assassin and the man who had ordered the hit were now both six feet under. Lena might have felt worse about deceiving Lillian if the woman weren’t a megalomaniacal psychopath.

“Tonight, eight o’clock. I just sent you the address. If you value Lex’s well-being, don’t be late,” Lena said, her voice now emotionless and cold as she hung up the phone.

She slumped over on her desk, battling off the emotion trying to well up in her throat. She felt sick, dirty after using such a dirty tactic. If she could think of any other way of getting her mother out of hiding, she would have done it the moment she found out Lillian was the leader of Cadmus. Remembering her promise to Kara to communicate better, she picked her phone back up and sent a text to Kara that said, _‘It’s done. The bait is set.’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooh Lena's gettin' serious with Lillian! XD  
> PSA: Always talk to your partner before doing what Lena did (e.g. pulling Kara's hair, making her beg, etc.). Kara is Super and can take whatever Lena can dish out (and couldn't even be physically harmed by Lena pulling her hair), but such things should be discussed. In the context of this story, we're just going to assume they've had conversations about this already, given how active their libidos are. X3


	18. Check Mate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I know this chapter is kinda short, but I wanted to separate it from the Kryptonian wedding ceremony cuz it just needed to be. But some super crazy fluff is to come!

Lena stood outside a large warehouse where she’d told her mother to meet her, watching intently as a large Cadillac SUV drew near and stopped a few dozen feet away. The windows were heavily tinted so Lena couldn’t see who was in the vehicle, but when Lillian stepped out of the passenger seat, Lena rolled her eyes. Leave it to Lillian to bring cronies at the risk of Lex’s life.

_“The driver is that Cyborg Hank Henshaw guy I told you about,”_ Kara’s voice said into Lena’s earpiece. _“It would seem your mother suspects you might turn her in.”_

Lena bit back a smug smile but said nothing as her mother approached. “I seem to recall saying no cronies, Mother,” Lena said as Lillian stepped up to her, her voice cold iron and venom.

Lillian waved a noncommittal hand in the direction of the SUV. “You can’t blame me for being cautious, Lena. But my driver will stay in the car as he has been instructed to do.”

Lena held out her hand. “Earpiece and phone,” she demanded.

Lillian looked quite annoyed by the demand but acquiesced nonetheless. “Are we doing this little plea for Lex’s life out here or in this dreadful warehouse you’ve chosen as our meeting place?”

Lena ignored the question and strode to the warehouse door. She opened it and waited for Lillian to enter before following and flipping on the lights. Lillian only walked in a few paces before she stopped in her tracks and looked around at the walls, pillars, and ceiling.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Lena said as she stepped up next to the other Luthor.

“I-I fail to see what this has to do with Lex,” Lillian replied, though Lena didn’t miss the falter in the woman’s voice.

“She painted all this,” Lena continued, ignoring Lillian. “It’s a timeline, a brief history of some major events that occurred on Krypton, as remembered by the last Daughter of Krypton. _Look at it_ , Lillian.”

A ghost of apprehension flickered through Lillian’s eyes. “Lena, what—?”

“Look at it!” Lena shouted, genuine emotion suddenly seething within her. “Look at what you stole from this world, what you stole from _me_!”

The pain of Lillian’s attempted murder of Kara swelled in Lena’s throat, threatening to overtake her. Despite Lillian’s failure, the fact that she had even attempted to take someone so precious to her burned a wound deep within Lena’s heart, a wound she doubted Lillian was even capable of healing. A wound, she had a feeling, might never heal.

_“I love you,”_ Kara’s voice said softly in her earpiece. _“I’m sorry this is so hard, Lena. But it’s almost over and I’m here. I’m here, love. I’m here.”_

Lena focused on the sound of Kara’s soothing voice and allowed it to ground her. She was here to end this fight and she wasn’t about to let emotions, not matter how real or intense, get in the way. “She was a _child_ when she came here, Mother. She fled to this world after hers was destroyed and had literally nowhere else to go. She was kind and _good_ and had only beauty to offer this world, and she made me _happy_ , Mother. Happier than I ever thought I could feel or deserved to feel.”

“If you ever have children, you will one day understand why I did what I did. As a mother, sometimes we must do things for them, even when it hurts them. All I’ve ever wanted was to see my family united, to see you and Lex close. So long as _she_ was in your life, that would never be possible,” Lillian said, though her usual cool façade faltered ever so slightly.

“And you thought killing my wife would make me feel closer to Lex? You thought that would bring us together? Lillian, you are entirely too intelligent to believe that bullshit. Which can only mean you’re lying. You didn’t kill Supergirl for anyone but yourself, why can’t you just admit that? You don’t do anything you do ‘for your children’ or ‘for humanity.’ You’ve convinced yourself that your problems in life have been caused by Superman and the other aliens that have immigrated to this planet, when really, you’re just miserable and alone and need someone to blame on your problems. How am I doing so far?”

“That accursed Superman stands in the way of all progress your brother and I have ever tried to make on this wretched planet!” Lillian snapped.

“Lex is nothing but a coward consumed by his own fear and that fear has driven him to madness,” Lena said coolly. “What he cannot control he feels he must destroy because he’s convinced himself if he can’t control it, then surely it will turn around and kill him—paranoia he’s certainly earned by being a colossal prat. This isn’t about protecting humanity, this is about his own cowardice! You know who is _actually_ protecting this world? Supergirl and Superman! And you know the saddest part is, he’s somehow convinced you to join his madness, convinced you it’s for the ‘betterment of mankind.’ That loyalty of yours is going to earn you a life sentence in a maximum-security prison. Because he’s turned you into a terrorist. And for what? Nothing. And I pity you for that.”

“And how exactly do you plan on throwing me in prison?” Lillian countered, her face now deadly and glacial.

Lena was unmoved by the look Lillian was giving her. “I traced the source of those drones you sent to kill Kara the first time back to a warehouse that would appear to be housing some very interesting items that seem to include a lot of explosives. And then I found video evidence of you blowing up the building where you tried to kill Supergirl. I’m sure the government will be quite keenly interested in a domestic terror attack right on U.S. soil. I can’t say criminal law is exactly my area of expertise, but I am fairly sure they can give you more than one life sentence for that kind of thing,” Lena said, hoping Lillian found her smirk to be insufferable. “I could go on with the evidence I have against you if you’d like.”

Lillian’s eyes narrowed. “If you had all that so-called evidence, I’d already be in hand-cuffs.” Her face suddenly faltered as she seemed to register everything Lena said. “Tried to kill Supergirl?” she echoed, her voice sounding unsure for the first time since their conversation started.

_“Lena, you should know, she has a detonator of some kind in her left coat pocket—a contingency I’m guessing, if something goes awry with your little meeting,”_ Kara’s concerned voice said into her earpiece. _“It looks like she rigged a bomb to her SUV, probably to use as a distraction. I’ve ‘detained’ her cyborg Hank. I don’t want to have to destroy the SUV unless I have to, though. She literally delivered us evidence.”_

“Hmm? Oh the DEO agreed to let me talk to you first, they have the building surrounded,” Lena said offhandedly as her eyes drifted to Lillian’s coat pocket. She hadn’t shown any signs of developing Kara’s X-ray vision, though she suddenly wished she did have it. Instead, she very carefully reached out with her mind, searching for a foreign shape hiding there. When she felt the metal of the detonator, she clasped onto it, though didn’t move it yet. “Oh, and you didn’t actually kill Kara, I rescued her. I just wanted to say my piece to you before you rot in prison for the rest of your life for my own closure. And I wanted you to see this beautiful artwork so that you can think of it every day as you stare at prison walls, and I want you to know you could have had this in your life. You could have had beauty in your life, but you chose fear and ugliness and Lex. I want you to remember that. And know that it will be me visiting you every week for the rest of your miserable life, and not Lex. Because despite everything you’ve done, I’m a _good_ person, and though you tried hard to beat that out of me, you failed.”

“You . . . rescued her? How?” Lillian asked, and although her face was still cold, she had gone quite pale.

The door to the warehouse opened and suddenly Supergirl was standing next to Lena, smiling at Lillian with an impossibly cocky smile on her beautiful lips. “She did rescue me, and you would _not_ believe how incredible she looked when she did it. A whole building was about to collapse on me and she stood over me and held it all like some ancient Greek goddess.”

DEO agents began spilling into the warehouse, but Lillian took no notice; she was staring at Supergirl like she was an impossible thing. “But how?” she all but whispered as agents surrounded them.

Lena took a step closer so only Lillian and Kara could hear her incredibly smug words. “It turns out, if a Super fucks you long enough, she’ll fuck super powers right into you.” Lena emphasized the point by using her telekinetic powers to pull the bomb detonator resting in Lillian’s pocket out of it, hovering it above her hand for Lillian to see. “I think the DEO will be _super_ interested in this detonator and why it’s in her pocket, don’t you darling?”

Kara’s smile was so wide and proud (and smug) Lena couldn’t help but feel a swell of happiness deep inside her bones. “They might, yeah,” Kara answered, her smile turning into more of a smirk at the expression on Lillian’s face.

It was the first time Lena had _ever_ seen Lillian Luthor rendered speechless, and seeing the look on her face, and the feeling Lena felt right now, was a catharsis she never thought she would ever get to experience in her life. It was a gift she would cherish always from Kara, a rare and beautiful gift: closure.

Even as the DEO dragged Lillian away, the woman was still completely speechless as she stared at the two of them. J’onn and Alex remained for a few minutes, going over some last details and J’onn carefully took the detonator from Lena. As they all turned to leave the warehouse, Lena caught Kara’s wrist and held her back. J’onn and Alex seemed to take the hint and quietly slipped out.

“I have a gift for you, Kara,” Lena said softly, a light blush entering her cheeks as she looked upon her beautiful Kryptonian. Sometimes it still hit her like the air being knocked out of her lungs how incredible it was that this incredible person, this beautiful woman chose her. She pulled a blue folder from her purse and offered it to Kara.

The Kryptonian accepted it, and Lena watched with joy as her face transformed from mild confusion and curiosity to complete shock and awe mixed with pure elation as she looked over the contents of the folder. “You bought me the warehouse?” she asked with a trembling voice.

“Kara, it would be a crime against humanity if the government ever tore this building down. Of _course_ I bought it. And although it’s yours, I may have to insist that we set up a lot of security so no one tries to graffiti any of this. If any of this were damaged by anyone, I would hunt that person down. I don’t want to think about what I’d do to them if I found them.”

“But how. . .?” Kara asked weakly, still gazing at the building deed in wonder.

“I have a team of very well-paid lawyers who pulled some strings with a few contacts at City Hall to rebuild the deed. Then I offered the city more money than they could refuse for the purchase of it and had the deed made in your name. And I was thinking. . . if you’re okay with it. . . maybe we could have our Kryptonian wedding ceremony here?” Lena asked, worrying her lower lip with a sudden onslaught of shyness.

Kara cupped Lena’s face with infinitely tender hands and brought their lips together in a kiss worthy of a Shakespearean love story. It was soft and chaste and yet the most intimately loving kiss she’d ever experienced in her life.

“I would love to,” Kara whispered around Lena’s kiss.

Lena had no frame of reference for comparison, but she was fairly certain no human in the world had ever experienced more joy than she did in that moment.


	19. Unto Death, I Am Yours

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, I'm just finishing fics left and right! ^_^

Kara stood looking in the body-length mirror of her hotel room scrutinizing every inch of her ceremonial Kryptonian robes. After two months of making preparations for this very day, she was ready and remarkably calm, but she was determined to make everything about this day perfect for Lena. She yearned to shower Lena with all the love in her fierce Kryptonian heart, and she had a _lot_ of it to give to Lena.

The last two months had been a flurry of change, but all of it was finally settling, and with that came a feeling of tranquility that had Kara’s heart fluttering with happiness. The repairs on her apartment had finished just in time for her to move in with Lena. They had discovered a beautiful gem of a loft together in the heart of downtown National City and had moved in together shortly thereafter. She was in a hotel, however, because on Krypton, coincidentally, it was tradition not to see one’s partner before the Bonding ceremony the day of, but not for any superstitious reasons like on Earth. Like so many things Kryptonian, it was for purely romantic reasons. The day of the ceremony and night before, the Bonded were not to see one another to symbolize their lives before meeting one another, then blindfolded at the location of the ceremony, they would find one another and remove each other’s blindfolds. Sometimes families would guide the blindfolded Bonded to each other, but Kara hadn’t felt right asking the Danvers to be present when Lena had no one to guide her.

Kara glanced at the clock on her phone then back to her reflection. She’d gotten the design for the ceremonial robes from the Fortress of Solitude then had commissioned a little seamstress shop in National City’s Chinatown whose owner knew virtually nothing about Kryptonians and spoke exactly zero English. Fortunately, Kara spoke fluent Mandarin Chinese, and she paid the shop three times what they asked because they did such a beautiful job with the recreation.

Sleeping without Lena had been the hardest part of this whole process, despite the fact that it was just one night. But that very difficulty would only make their coming back together all the more beautiful. Kara fussed one last time with her hair and white ceremonial gown with blue filigree then grabbed her overnight bag and headed to checkout. After leaving the hotel, she stepped into her awaiting taxi. Normally she would of course fly, but she didn’t want a single hair out of place or her silk gown to be windblown or wrinkled, so she patiently waited while making polite conversation with the cab driver. She’d already been to the warehouse in the morning, setting everything up at super speed, and had arranged for Lena to arrive first and wait for her under a flowered archway she’d set up. As her cab pulled up she saw another taxi pass by them and a wide grin spread through her lips. Her heartrate launched into overdrive and her body lit up like wildfire at the idea of Lena waiting for her. She made a mental note to explore blindfolding Lena and tying her to the bed and making her wait for her (if Lena was amenable to the idea).

She strode to the warehouse door as her cab drove off and withdrew her blindfold from her overnight bag. She put it over her eyes, careful not to mess up her hair, then cautiously opened the door. “Lena?” she called out, honing in on the sound of Lena’s heartbeat which matched her own in speed.

“I’m here, my love,” Lena replied, her voice _so_ warm and loving and just those words alone nearly reduced Kara to tears of pure joy. “Do you need me to keep talking so you can find me?”

“I can hear your heartbeat in a crowded room. I don’t ‘need’ to hear you talk, but I adore the sound of your voice so I would love it if you did keep talking,” Kara said, unable to contain her smirk.

“You could just say yes, you adorkable showoff,” Lena teased as Kara carefully walked towards the sound of her wife’s voice. “But also, I love the sound of your voice, too. The first time you called me Miss Luthor was the first time I ever liked being called Luthor, because you said it without judgement, despite knowing my family history. I loved you for that; it’s partly why I hired you. And then I fell in love with you because every time you looked at me all I saw reflected back in your eyes was love. You showed me what it was to love myself, and that’s the greatest gift you could have ever given me. I love you, Kara Zor-El. More than I ever dreamed I could love anyone.”

Kara’s blindfold was damp with tears by the time she reached Lena. She held her hands in front of her and slid them tenderly onto Lena’s hips when they at last came together. Kara felt as though she could breathe again when she felt Lena’s arms slide up to cup her face and pull her into a deep, soulful kiss. As it lingered on, Kara reached up and carefully untied Lena’s blindfold and Lena quickly followed suit. When the cloth was removed from their eyes, Kara pulled back from Lena’s lips to look upon her wife.

The sight stole the very breath from Kara’s lungs. The ceremonial white and gold Kryptonian robes looked so lovely on her, and the sight of her in something so distinctly Kryptonian stirred something deep within Kara, a longing, a profound yearning to be Lena’s everything, to give all of herself to this incredible woman, and to give her everything her heart could possibly desire. Lena’s hair was curled and fell delicately about her shoulders and her make-up made her jade eyes glow even more vibrantly than usual, if such was possible.

“Lena. . . Rao, Lena. . .” was all Kara could muster before the need to claim Lena’s lips consumed her entire being. Kara marveled, not for the first time, how perfectly their lips fit together, how Lena’s lips so wonderfully encompassed Kara’s lower lip, how it inevitably turned into a nibble, and how it deepened as naturally as breathing.

It was only after reminding herself the reason they were here and found the will to pull away. A difficult task; there was little in the world she enjoyed more than kissing Lena. She had to take a deep, centering breath before she was able to form words again. She laced their fingers together and gazed into those jade eyes that held such incredible power over her heart.

“I choose you, Lena Kieran Luthor,” Kara said, soft but sure. “I knew it from the moment I met you that I would always want to be in your life. I looked into your eyes and saw my heart gazing back for it was yours from, the very beginning, Lena, it was yours. And I give it to you freely and always. I choose you, now and every day for the rest of my life. I choose you. You are my family, and I take your name as my own. I vow to love and respect you, to catch you when you stumble, to carry you when you fall, to lean on you when I cannot stand on my own, to be a light to you when you are in darkness, and to be your roots, strong and sure and steadfast. Nothing in this life is certain, but I do know this. I will always be yours, Lena. Unto death, I am yours.”

Both of them had tears streaming down their faces by the time Kara finished speaking, and Lena’s hands came up around the sides of Kara’s neck, pressing her forehead to Kara’s.

“God, Kara. . .” Lena said between soft, gasping sobs. She too took a deep breath and shuddered, as if to will away her tears. “I choose you, Kara Danvers Zor-El. When I first looked into your eyes I saw my whole world gazing back at me. I vow to love and respect you, to honor and to cherish you always. I vow to be your anchor when you need grounding, and your soft place to fall when you can no longer bear the weight of the sky. I will always be yours, Kara. Unto death, I am yours.”

They stood for a long time with their foreheads pressed together, hands clasped and softly crying happier tears than Kara could ever remember crying. When she found her ability to speak again, Kara bent down and pulled a sealed cylindrical container from her overnight bag roughly the size of a soup thermos. Lena’s head tilted adorably in curiosity as Kara carefully broke the seal and withdrew the delicate crystal within.

“This is a Bonding crystal,” Kara explained, setting the container aside and held the crystal out for Lena to see in the flat of her hands. “The last one from Krypton; my parents put it in the pod for me before sending me here, in the event that I found someone with whom I could share it. Like a healthy relationship, this crystal requires daily maintenance or it will turn black and die. But if carefully cultivated with dedication and love, it will grow stronger and more beautiful each passing year. Now that it has been exposed to oxygen, it will begin to grow. But don’t worry, the maintenance it requires is merely a solvent we’ll need to make and drip on it daily,” Kara added. “In case you were concerned it takes extreme care, or something.”

“Oh Kara, it’s beautiful,” Lena breathed, running her fingertips along its smooth surface. “It’s a living crystal?”

“It is,” Kara replied with a soft smile.

“It’s beautiful, Kara,” Lena said, gazing in wonder at it. “Also, you realize I’m going to have to research every scrap of information I can about these crystals, right? Because you’ve just handed a romantic scientist a symbol of our love and I am very competitive and want to excel at anything and everything that involves you. As in, I’m going to grow this into the most beautiful Bonding crystal ever to be grown.”

Kara couldn’t stop a giggle from bubbling from her throat. “It’s not a competition, Lena.”

“It _definitely_ is and you’ll never convince me otherwise.”

Kara smiled and smiled until her face ached with happiness. “I love you _so much_ , Lena.”

* * *

It was the single most intimate and romantic and exquisitely beautiful day of Lena’s life. After finishing the ceremony, Lena played _“Symphony”_ on the piano Kara had set up in the warehouse, then afterwards they moved to the ceremonial “marital” bed. According to Kara, it was an optional part of the ceremony, but Lena had enthusiastically opted in for it, and she was _so_ glad she did. Kara had flown their bed to the warehouse before Lena’s arrival because they decided they wanted to share all of the ceremony in the warehouse surrounded in Kryptonian art.

To begin, Kara had set up dozens of tower candles of various heights around the bed and shut off all other lights in the warehouse. Kara had made a playlist of chill dubstep that Lena teasingly called sex music as Kara sprinkled rose pedals on their bed. They then spent the next full hour slowly stripping away every layer of clothing piece by piece, Kara speaking beautiful words in Kryptonian all the while as their robes fell to the floor. Afterwards they climbed on the bed and made love as Lena had never made love before. Unlike so many previous times, Kara Joined with Lena at the beginning of their lovemaking instead of before or during climax, and she maintained their Joining through hours of heavenly _hours_ of lovemaking. They made love in nearly every way two people _could_ make love, including exploring new entrances they’d never explored, pleasure they’d never experienced. They pleasured each other with fingers, lips, and tongues, kissing, touching, licking every surface and every opening of each other, even experiencing scissoring for the first time and Lena was caught up so much in the intimacy of it, they both came despite having never come that way before. And when they had explored every avenue of pleasure in this way, they retrieved Lena’s phallic invention and made love in what Lena was sure was just about every position in the Kama Sutra. Lena didn’t know if Kara was doing something through the Joining to make them both so insatiable, but it wasn’t something she put a lot of thought into. All she knew for an entire glorious day was complete and profound ecstasy. Kara was ravenous, uninhibited and uncontrolled in all the ways she made Lena come, from having Lena sit on her lap facing away from her, to pressing down on top of her with Lena’s legs wrapped around Kara’s neck, to experimenting with a string of anal beads while Kara kneeled behind her and pumped into her from behind as Lena buried her face in the mattress with endless gasping groans spilling from her lips.

After Lena had taken all she could receive from the thick toy, to her complete surprise and delight, Kara had then had Lena wear the toy, laid her down on the bed and straddled her hips, then rode Lena with reckless abandoned, the toy in her other opening while pleasuring herself vigorously and completely unashamed. It was both the hottest, dirtiest, and most beautiful thing Lena had ever experienced and she was sure she never came so hard in her life when she felt the tight ring of muscles clench around her length as Kara came _hard_ around her. The whole experience was so unexpected, so powerfully arousing (made even more so because she could feel Kara’s pleasure through the Joining as well), Lena blacked out for a full two minutes afterwards. When she recovered, driven by pure lust and libidinous desire, Lena had then suspended them in the air with her new telekinetic powers and fucked Kara in her normal entrance in a position not possible without a zero-gravity environment and a lot of flexibility. She pounded into Kara deep and _hard_ and long until the Kryptonian’s screams reverberated off the walls and she squirted the evidence of her love and lust all over Lena’s thighs until they at last, some time well after midnight, collapsed back down on the bed, so utterly spent neither of them could move or speak.

It wasn’t until late afternoon the following day that the two of them even woke up. Lena was supremely grateful, not for the first time, for super powers because she was absolutely certain she would not be able to move or walk for _days_ without them after the previous night’s activities. If ever again. Lena had fallen asleep laying almost entirely on top of Kara, her head resting over Kara’s heart and the rest of them a tangle of limbs and sheets. Lena curled deeper into Kara, the memory of yesterday bringing tears to her eyes in a profound swell of emotion.

It had almost been too much, bearing the weight of the celestial, _immense_ love of a Kryptonian. Staying Joined for so long had blurred the lines between them so completely that she had felt what it was to love herself through Kara’s eyes and Kara had felt the same from Lena. And somehow, just by allowing this wonderful woman to love her, she had felt, _learned_ what it was to love herself. She felt a sudden, powerful guilt that she and she alone would get to experience Kara’s love like this, that Kara’s love was such a beautiful gift that should be shared with the world. But then, Kara already gave _so much_ to the world, did she not deserve to be selfish in this? Did she not deserve to give only this part of herself to whom she chose? And god. . . Kara had chosen _her_.

“Hey,” Kara’s soft voice permeated the silence of the warehouse and she tightened her arms around Lena. “Are you crying? Are you all right?”

Lena was almost able to exhale a soft laugh at herself. “I’m just. . . _so_ stupid happy, Kara. So much happier than I deserve.”

“You deserve the world, Lena,” Kara said softly, kissing Lena’s forehead.

“I’d say ‘no you do,’ but we’d just sound too sickeningly sweet,” Lena teased with a playful grin.

“Can we have our lab be here?” Kara asked suddenly.

Lena blinked. “Here? I’m not sure I’d want to risk a lab explosion ruining your paintings.”

“Are you planning on exploding things in your lab?” Kara asked with mock-concern.

Lena raised an eyebrow. “No, but you never know when experimenting with quantum entanglement when you might set off a chain reaction that bends time and the fabric of space,” she replied with a sarcastic smirk. “Or, you know, causes an explosion.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Fine, we can have our lab somewhere boring with awful white walls and florescent lights to accent your lovely green eyes.”

“Aaaaw you don’t like looking at my lovely green eyes under florescent lights?” Lena teased.

Kara chuckled. “Lena, you would look beautiful in a potato sack, but whoever invented florescent lights clearly hated all of humanity because that lighting is flattering to _no one_.”

Lena planted a very open-mouthed kiss all over Kara’s lips. “There shall be no white walls or florescent lights in our laboratory. But also, I was thinking part of our lab could be an art studio for you. And an art gallery, if that’s something that appeals to you.”

Kara gazed at Lena for several moments, exhaling a joyous sigh. “I think that sounds like a perfect dream.”

Lena smiled wide in return. "Excellent. Now let's go shower, I'm still sticky from all that brain-melting, gravity-defying, soul-shattering fucking yesterday."

* * *

“Do you ever get overwhelmed?” Lena asked. She and Lois were currently sitting in a fancy little desert shop enjoying an overload of sugary desserts.

Lois looked up from her large slurp of thick milkshake and gave Lena a curious look. “What do you mean?”

“New superpowers aside, just Joining with her I get a little overwhelmed sometimes when I can feel how much she loves me,” Lena said with a sigh both impossibly happy but also with a deep ache. “I think I worry sometimes that I can’t match it, that I don’t deserve all that love.”

“Have you ever felt disappointment when you Join? From her, I mean?” Lois asked.

Lena thought about that for a moment. “No, I don’t think so. She seems perfectly content to give me all the love she has in her heart. But do I deserve all that love? Am I good enough for it?”

“Is anyone on planet Earth?” Lois asked, dipping a fry in her milkshake. “I’m pretty sure the answer is no, but what’s the alternative? If no one is ‘worthy,’ then that would mean our Kryptonians would have to be alone. Better to be with someone who will try their damndest every day of their life to be worthy of that love than alone with no one to love them.”

Lena’s insides clenched with guilt. “I just. . . sometimes I can’t help but feel guilty, you know? Like my love isn’t enough for her.”

Lois took another long swig of milkshake. “God I love being able to eat whatever the hell I want with these new powers without worrying about it going straight to our hips. We’re so fucking lucky.”

Lena sighed impatiently. “You’re avoiding the subject.”

“Not really,” Lois shrugged. “What can we do at the end of the day, really? Be grateful every day that we’ve been given such an extraordinary gift and do the best that we can. And even if at some point it’s not enough for them, be grateful for the time we had together.”

“It’s that last part that worries me. What if she decides it’s not enough? I can’t lose her, Lois. I just can’t,” Lena said softly.

“She already told you Kryptonians don’t believe in divorce, right? If she didn’t want you, I highly doubt she would have gone through with that whole Kryptonian Bonding ceremony. Which, you have still been vague on the details of what happened. I want to know everything. Come on, spill the tea!”

Lena felt herself flush scarlet at the very memory of what happened that day, a mere three weeks ago. They’d certainly made love plenty on their honeymoon as well, but she was fairly certain nothing might ever top that night as far as the best, most earth-shattering sex of her life, and she was completely okay with that. The memory alone was a high she was still riding. She suddenly wished they had recorded it.

“Well, we exchanged some vows, then she gave me a ceremonial Bonding crystal, then. . . and then we made love for _hours_ while Joined the entire time. We’ve never stayed Joined that long and. . . my _god_ , Lois, it was. . .” she trailed off, unable to find the words, and shifted in her seat as heat pooled intensely between her legs at the memory. “All I can say is, she’s ruined me so thoroughly for anyone else."

Lois chuckled. “Damn. And I thought Clark was insatiable.”

Lena snickered. “Is he still holding back on you?”

“No, not as much. Especially since he found out he can’t hurt me during sex thanks to these new super powers. Isn’t it just so fun being married to our Kryptonian demi-gods?” Lois grinned.

Lena took a huge bite of creamy gelato from her dish. “Speaking of super powers, have you figured any of yours out yet?”

“Besides his protective ‘invincibility’ aura, I seem to have developed invisibility. Haven’t discovered anything else. Haven’t been curious enough. Invisibility has all my focus because you would not believe the stories I’ve uncovered with this new power. It feels like cheating and I might feel bad about if I weren’t responsible for locking up some truly terrible criminals.”

“Ever thought of donning a cape and go out on the battlefield with Clark?” Lena asked.

"Not as of yet," Lois said. "You?"

“I don’t look particularly good in capes,” Lena said with a wry smile. “Although I do tend to end up on the battlefield with her an awful lot. I’m not very good at sitting on the sidelines, though I tend to run support with Winn rather than diving into the thick of things. I’ve used my powers many times from a distance and everyone is none the wiser.”

“What, not a fan of the limelight?” Lois teased.

“That’s more Kara’s forte than mine. My brainpower is better spent trying to come up with clean, renewable energy than fighting giant ugly aliens from space,” Lena replied, taking a delicate sip of her fruity tea.

Lois chuckled. “I know what you mean.”

Lena studied Lois for several long moments before mustering her bravery. “So. . . I really want to try my hand at this best friend thing with someone who isn’t an ex-girlfriend or a wife. And I’m sure you have a million friends of your own, but I . . . I want to be best friends. I-I should say, you are my best friend. I understand if that slot is already taken for you.”

Lois’s smile widened exponentially. “I’m flattered, Lena, and the answer is yes. This might come as a surprise, but workaholics like me tend to have a hard time making lasting friends. But I think if anyone _gets_ it, it would be you. So yes. Yes I would love to consider you my best friend.”

“Oh thank god. Because I was definitely one rejection away from turning into a crazy cat lady. And also I really need to tell someone, and also maybe caution you, apparently if you Join long enough with a Kryptonian, apparently not only will you get super powers, but you might also get pregnant from it.”

Lois nearly sprayed milkshake everywhere, only managing to swallow it down at the last second before a fit of coughing. “ _What_?!”

Lena snorted back a laugh. “We just found out two days ago. Kara is with Alex right now breaking the news.”

“Holy shit,” Lois sputtered. “ _How_? Do you know?”

“Best guess, my egg was fertilized by some miracle of Kryptonian physiology,” Lena said with a small smile. “Apparently if you go deep enough into a Joining, your very DNA can end up combining sometimes, thus why I’ve gained her super powers. We suspect I got pregnant from the night of our Bonding ceremony, since we were Joined for so long.”

Lois nodded slowly. “Good to know. I am definitely not ready for kids, so I’ll certainly pass the information along to Clark. Are you scared? If they’re half Kryptonian, that likely means they’ll be super babies. Oh god…”

Lena exhaled a small laugh. “We’ll definitely have to super proof our new loft. I have a feeling as they age, we’ll likely have to get a house outside of town with a good chunk of property so they can test whatever powers they manifest without being seen. We’re not too worried, though. Clark didn’t manifest his powers until he was ten or twelve years old.”

“They?” Lois asked, tilting her head slightly.

“Oh. Right. I’m having twin girls.”

Lois surprised Lena by squealing like an excited girl and hopped off her chair to give Lena a huge hug.

“Oh my god I can’t wait to be an aunt! Wait. Everyone should grow up with cousins around. I suppose this means Clark and I will just have to get busy.”

Lena burst out laughing. “That seems like a suspect reason to have children, Lois.”

“I stand by my decision. I can’t let you go through a whole twin pregnancy alone. As your best friend, that just wouldn’t be right.”

Although she knew Lois was teasing, the light repertoire that was developing between them was something she’d grown to deeply appreciate. She felt a comfort around Lois that she rarely felt with anyone.

“Want to come with me when I break the news to Lillian? I can’t wait to see her face when I tell her I’m having Kara’s babies,” Lena said with a satisfied smirk creeping into her lips.

“Oh my god, yes. Absofuckinglutely, yes,” Lois laughed.

* * *

**Epilogue**

Kara woke with a start when she heard Lena hiss in a surprised breath. She looked at the clock on her nightstand through sleep-heavy eyes and saw it was three in the morning. She rolled over and wrapped her arms around Lena, sliding one hand down to Lena’s swollen belly.

“Are you okay?” she whispered in Lena’s ear.

“I’m all right,” Lena replied softly. “They startled me awake when they decided to try their little hands at kickboxing with each other. Apparently they’re early birds. Or late night party animals. Probably the latter.”

Kara smiled against Lena’s shoulder as she kissed it. She encouraged Lena onto her back, then shifted down the bed and lifted Lena’s nightshirt up. Pressing her lips to Lena’s stomach, she began softly humming a Kryptonian lullaby.

“Hey little ones,” she cooed, running her hands along Lena’s stomach and began to softly glow as she initiated a Joining. “Let Mama sleep, okay? She had a long day yesterday.”

She heard Lena sigh happily when their emotions combined as Kara maintained a gentle family Joining. Lena ran her hands through Kara’s thick hair, the two of them basking in the feeling of the two little lives they could sense inside Lena’s womb. Kara felt a wave of incredible amazement and awe from Lena that she could feel the emotion coming from their twins, that she could feel their love and excitement to meet Kara and Lena, even though they didn’t form it in words. But both Kara and Lena flooded back an endless well of love to them, and within moments they stopped kicking and settled back down, curling into each other.

As the Joining faded, Kara felt Lena exhale a soft sob and quickly climbed back up to hold her again.

“I’m okay,” Lena reassured her, snuggling into Kara’s arms. “I just. . . god, Kara, I just can’t believe how lucky I am sometimes. I get all this, you, our daughters, all because I got drunk one night in Vegas and accidentally married you. It’s like I won the lottery without even buying a ticket.”

Kara smiled and nuzzled into Lena’s cheek. “Thank god I interview really well, otherwise you might not have hired me.”

“I almost didn’t hire you.”

Kara drew back, aghast. “What?? _Me_ , a Kryptonian demi-god?”

Lena chuckled. “Exactly. I thought you were impossibly hot. I almost didn’t hire you because I didn’t want to be that trashy CEO that hires someone just because you’re beautiful and I wanted to jump your bones. But you really did interview well; I would have been a fool to not hire you. Or at least that’s what I told myself for two solid months before we started fucking and I found out you were Supergirl.”

Kara snorted out a chuckle. “Lena Luthor-Zor-El, you dirty CEO.”

Lena purred at the name. Although they couldn’t exactly put it on a marriage certificate, they agreed they would consider themselves as part of each other’s Houses in private. “I regret nothing, Kara Luthor-Zor-El.”

Kara smiled and smiled and kissed Lena. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

**The End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I got quite a few requests for a preggers Lena, and sorry for throwing it in at the end, but I didn't want to not do it at all. Hope you all enjoyed! Now I'm off to find inspiration for another fanfic. Or you know. Write a damn book. XD XD

**Author's Note:**

> Don't forget to kudos and comment if you are enjoying the fics you're reading! Comments are like hugs, and everyone needs hugs right now with quarantine!


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